



'■ •' ■iii'ipfS'i’ Luirrr^i 

:. ',r: ;i T'.* •; 




, il ^ ;v. ‘\ ■ 

V , ■ ■ 




‘^r:.ti^r-‘»‘vn 


■ ., • • .;•• •■■• ^ •* •-’* • -. ’•' • ' '* V - ■ 

♦ •< • ■ •■•..* , . . .,,,.. i ' w • .. ■ •> • 

»'»•;, - » . , ,f *.♦.-, « * * , 

. r * , .'‘--S' , ■ , . • ,4 . ,.• •'•• ■■« ;|,; 

’ ' ■ * ■'. . ■;.'■•■•« t * ;. - ‘ . » , ■> « 

Ill 


*■ ' < ,« 

^ 4 . £ 


• • .• ■«'. 4 - 4 ' ,* « I ' • I • .4 )-*i ■ V-Xw 

* ' • • * ♦ • • _ M ^ • > I - ( - a a#fi 

‘v’’ ' ■" * ■ '.■■■’:■ ";' ‘ '■ - Vi ‘ 

I • ' •* V - . ■ . . ■ : j. I , . ,, , ».\ . ' «• i‘, < ..»».^. -.4 ..» W>« 

■' 'V 4 ■ « t > i 1 • ^ I I • - ^ p crt -/ 1 * V i ^ . j 

• .■44 ■ j 4 I .. j ■/ • -,• II t ( -. I , ( 4 « • - ' . 1 ‘ 

V ■( ..j J{ {« •*';«» •'i.-.V s •' * *>.<»>•*# 

' ; 4 * ■•/'••■*•■ ', J 4 * ■ ‘ I y. '. ' ‘,7 

' .L'‘! "ii '••» •’•* ' *! * <• • •“ 


' •’; ’ ••* ,-■* . *.:•>, • .■: .,•».,*■'••!■ r. ■:• 

s jf . V jt ,p ' 4 3 '. rf . - ^ - V .’ •- j . i , -; ■‘.t; ! V' ; 

• - * , * 4 . « . ' / . « ^ ^ , 41 4 4* > 4 * ' 4 

rV, ^ ••.•••.-••^.. .p;-. 

:; ■ r - 4 -. .' • ., ;» 

‘ < I ■: • ■• • •• 1 V* V '.4 .» ■' ■* '•' 4 - S ' ii ’ * 

- »■ :• , 4 - 

. ’W' .-i^n 4 

^ ,4 ^ J..J '!..; VJ -i 


• • t ♦ .I; V + .4 - -I •: * t . . • • » < 1 t . V -} J t . ■- , 

I ••vC'V* »4;* / 

J 4, y0» • k#*4« .*. “• ***^. >1 *,• 

4 . ■ ' . » y it I •T •*i * « >T ’ 

' > .'■'■’.T’V' A 

.■ t # 4 ^. J ^ 4 ** ^ ■* 

- ■•' . •' ' * -■ - t *•■ •• • 4.B 4-' ^ ^ 


I.. . 

ti-' 


t:i 

lllt'lS':' 


. 1 

»4 j « 

4 

- - '.-* 

1 

' 1 


4 

■ f * 

« ' 


* 1 

» ' «• 


i 

M>.':iij-i-a! 


V|it 

m 

i' 

11 ^ 


I f * 4 

m\\; 

t-r * * :» I 




im 

























✓ 



Copyright}^? 




COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



s 














\^x - 



•V :-s'iv ... .... ■■•■. ■«’•., f S* 


f/ . 


• * • 




(,ir. 




L- . U 



4 ' 









X *''’ n"*'- ■ 


.■* ^ * v 

/ . iV-- 


* • 


, » ■ 




» • 








*- • -“ ■ -. 





• ' • ■ V "*'• • 

*^ • *, * ■■ .; N-*/< ' \ 

-• • i . tf 1 ^ *^ • , * 





M’~ 

* r» I \ 




. 1 / 



Vi 


/V - ' 


•V 



io ’ 

,r • flfV' 





»r.‘ 





I* 



« « 









I V 


H V • •• 



j‘- • / 


« u • : 


IT/ (X 



! • /- \ H ^ 






‘‘•I- 


•‘V 












■V 


*'" V, ■•V’ .\\v ,y>.'' 




i. / 









' =". . 

• 4 

a** 



3S!L''‘r •■ 





V 


r *1 • * 


/ 




f . 






/ 

4 



t 



t 

A . • 

r *■' 


e 


# 


> 


< 

4 


> 


« 


4 

' # 



. • 


4 ' 



4 


ft 


4 


I 


t 


( 



» 




f* 


> 




/ 

I 


•» f 


. V 


ft 


V 




ft 


• > 

* 

* • • * 

# i 

■ * > 4 * * ' 

^ i..; , 




4 


f 


4 




» 


• 1 


V 




/ I 

% 


A 


* -■ ; 

,r • . *. * 


I, . t 


#• ri 


^3_^D 

^ ^ # 


^ I? *0 

< • 





“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” 




BETTY WALES 
&.C0. 

A STORY FOR GIRLS 

MARGARET WARDE 


AUTHOR OF 

BETTY WALES FRESHMAN 
BETTY WALES SOPHOMORE 
BETTY WALES JUNIOR 
BETTY wales SENIOR 
BETTY WALES B.A. 



ILLUSTRATED BY 
EVA M NAGEL 

PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 
MCMIX 


OOPYBIGHT 
19 09 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 




INTRODUCTION 

Many of the girls who will read this book 
have already made the acquaintance of Betty 
Wales, and know all about her adventures at 
Harding College, from her rollicking fresh- 
man days to the time when she was a grave 
and reverend senior — and was always being 
mistaken for a freshman, nevertheless. Mary 
Brooks graduated from Harding a year before 
Betty, and she always considered that this 
gave her the privilege of patronizing her 
friends in 19 — , Betty^s class. Madeline joined 
19 — in its sophomore year, and Babbie Hil- 
dreth (she and her friends Babe and Bob were 
known collectively as the three B’s) was 
another of the shining lights of that famous 
class. She and Madeline and Betty planned 
the tea-room, though only in fun, during a 
trip abroad that came as a grand finale to their 
college days. You can read all about that 
in Betty Wales, B. A.,’^ which also tells 
about Mary Brooks's impromptu " wedding. 
But you will have to go back to “ Betty 
3 


4 


INTRODUCTION 


Wales, Senior,^’ to find out how Mary^s little 
friends discovered that she was interested in 
Professor Hinsdale. There are a lot of other 
things that you will want to know about 
Betty and her friends — if you like them — in 
Betty Wales, Freshman,” Betty Wales, 
Sophomore,” and Betty Wales, Junior.” 

Margaket Warde. 


CONTENTS 


I. 

Unpleasant Discoveries . 


9 

II. 

Betty Wales, “ M. A.” . 


24 

III. 

That Tea-Room Again 


39 

IV. 

Plans and Parties 


56 

V. 

The Real Thing 


74 

VI. 

Eugenia Ford’s Luncheon 


97 

VII. 

Mary, the Perfect Patron 



VIII. 

Young-Man-Over-the-Fence . 


128 

IX. 

An Order for a Party 


145 

X. 

Unexpected Visitors 


162 

XI. 

The Advent of the Ploshkin . 


181 

XII. 

A Tragic Disappearance . 


198 

XIII. 

More “ Side-Lines ” . 


221 

XIV. 

The Revolt of the “Why-Get-Ups 

>> 

236 

XV. 

A Sea of Troubles . 


252 

XVI. 

The Mystery Solved 


270 

XVII. 

A Magnate to the Rescue 


291 

XVIII. 

A Romance and a Burglary 


307 

XIX. 

The Amazing Mr. Smith and Other 



Amazements .... 


329 

XX. 

A Final Excitement . 


346 


5 




1 1 :. 


Illustrations 


PAGE 


« What Are You Doing Here ? ” 

Frontispiece 

“ How ARE We Going to Work ? ” . 

• 

. 62 

She Stopped the Girls as they Went Out 

. 117 

*• This Tea-Shop Closes at Six ” 

• 

. 148 

True Stories of Dolls . 

. 

. 190 

They Intercepted the President . 

• 

. 303 

** Come Along Now 

, 

• 325 


Betty Wales & Co. 


7 


t 



\ 



f,\ #4 


Betty Wales & Go. 

CHAPTER I 

UNPLEASANT DISCOVERIES 

The very loveliest part of going abroad is 
coming home again I ** laughed Betty Wales, 
trying to kiss her mother, hug the smallest 
sister, and rush into her father’s outstretched 
arms all at one and the same minute. For- 
tunately Will and Nan had had their turns at 
the station, and the smallest sister’s kitten had 
run away at the critical moment; otherwise 
matters would have been hopelessly compli- 
cated. 

“ I hope you’ll always feel just that way, 
dear,” said Mrs. Wales. 

“We’re mighty glad to have you back, 
child,” added father, with a queer little 
catch in his merry voice. 

“ Have you got anything for me in your 
9 


lo BETTT WALES & CO. 

trunk, Betty? ” demanded the smallest sister, 
who was a very practical young person. 

Lots of things, dear,'' Betty assured her 
gaily, '' and something for the kitten, even if 
she isn't here to say ^ how do you do ' to 
me." 

We'll have dinner first," mother insisted 
laughingly. 

“ And then we'll all sit around in an ex- 
pectant circle and watch Betty unpack," 
added Nan. 

I've stopped being expectant since I've 
heard the news," put in Will. She's 
brought back money. How’s that, dad, for 
one of the Wales family?" 

Well, there weren't any emergencies," 
Betty explained earnestly. So of course I 
could save my emergency fund." 

“ Seeing something that she wants in a 
store-window is Nan's definition of an emer- 
gency," declared Will. 

'' What's yours ? " retorted Nan. “ Besides, 
haven't I turned over a new leaf this month, 
and isn't it this very next week that I'm to 
begin earning my own bread and butter and 
jam?" 


BETTT WALES & CO. ii 

“ What do you mean, Nan ? demanded 
Betty in amazement. 

** Oh, your college course and your trip 
abroad have bankrupted father,’^ laughed 
Nan ; and then, seeing Betty's expression of 
genuine distress, “ No, dear, only we are an 
expensive family and hopelessly extravagant, 
as Will says, and times are bad. Anyway I'm 
tired of rushing around, studying and travel- 
ing and amusing myself. So when two of the 
girls in my class, who have a school in Bos- 
ton, offered me a job, I jumped at it. Don't 
you think I'm likely to make a stunning 
school-ma'am ? " 

‘‘ Of course," Betty assured her promptly. 
** You're so bright. But I thought you hated 
Boston, and you always said that Ethel was 
so silly to drudge at teaching when she didn't 
need to." 

** But can't I change my mind ? " asked 
Nan gaily. 

I suppose so." Betty looked in a puzzled 
way around the family group. Only " 

“ Only dinner is ready," suggested mother 
again ; and all through the meal the talk was 
about Betty's voyage home, with its exciting 


12 BETTT WALES & CO, 


storm, and her visit to Harding, with Georgians 
gargoyle party and Mary Brooks's absurd meth- 
ods of housekeeping as main features of inter- 
est. The minute dinner was over the smallest 
sister caught Betty around the waist, and 
whispered something in her ear. 

“ All right, dear," Betty promised. You 
shan't have to wait another minute to see 
what I've brought you." And they all, ex- 
cept Will and Mr. Wales, who preferred the 
library and the evening papers, adjourned to 
Betty's room to help unpack. 

** Such a mess I " she sighed, as she uncov- 
ered the top tray. “ You see I took out some 
things on shipboard, and then Mary and 
Roberta and Bob and Georgia all wanted to 
see what we'd brought home, and of course I 
was in too much of a rush to put things back 
straight. Besides, it wasn't worth while to 
be particular, when all my clothes need 
mending or pressing or something. Move 
back, little sister, so I can have room for the 
Katie pile. It's going to be about all Katie 
pile, I'm afraid." 

Is the Katie pile what you want Katie to 
fix in the sewing-room ? " inquired the small- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


13 


est sister. Because we haven’t got Katie any 
more, so you’ll have to call it something else.” 

“ Haven’t got Katie any more I ” Betty’s 
face wore an expression of blank amazement. 
“ Has Katie left? ” 

I thought we could get on without her,” 
Mrs. Wales explained hastily. ** I have so lit- 
tle to do, now that my girls are all grown up. 
Dorothy is going to help me mend stockings 
this winter, aren’t you, dear ? ” 

The smallest sister nodded impressively. 

I’ll help you mend your Katie pile too, 
Betty. Katie has gone to the Elingwoods’ to 
live, and she likes it, but she says it’s not the 
same thing, and when times are better she’ll 
be glad of it, because then she’ll come right 
back here.” 

“ You see it’s this queer horrid panic, 
Betty,” Nan explained. Father hasn’t 
actually lost much, I imagine ; but business is 
bad, and so we’re trying to economize.” 

And you never told me I ” Betty looked 
reproachfully at her mother. 

Mrs. Wales laughed. No, dear. Why 
should we ? Anyway it’s all come up lately, 
since we got back from the shore. Even now 


14 BETTT WALES & CO. 

there^s really nothing to tell, except that every- 
body is talking hard times and father's busi- 
ness is dull. I'm very sorry it happened this 
season, because I meant you to be very gay 
your first winter at home, and now we can't 
do much formal entertaining." 

Betty's face clouded as she remembered a 
house-party she had planned for the “ Merry 
Hearts." Luckily, she hadn't mentioned it; 
it was to have been a grand surprise to every- 
body. Then a horrible thought swept every- 
thing else out of her head. 

Oh, mother dear," she began, perhaps I 
ought to teach too, like Nan. I don't believe 
I could, ever in the world, but I suppose every 
college girl ought to be able to, and I could try." 

Betty Wales," mother ordered solemnly, 
** unpack your trunk just enough to satisfy 
Dorothy's curiosity, and then go to bed. 
You're worn out, and as nervous as a witch. 
Just because I've decided not to keep a seam- 
stress in the house this winter, and Nan is tired 
of society and jumps at an excuse to do a lit- 
tle teaching, you decide that the family is on 
the way to the poorhouse." 

It isn't only that 


11 


Betty stopped. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


IS 


She had started to say that father looked 
worried, and didn't joke back at all when you 
teased him ; but perhaps that only seemed so 
to-night because she was fatigued herself from 
too much gaiety at Harding. 

So she hunted out six assorted neck-bows 
for the gray kitten, six hair ribbons from 
Paris for the kitten's small mistress, a Dutch 
doll, and a long chain strung with tiny silver 
charms, each with a story of its own ; and 
having assured the smallest sister that this 
was only a beginning of the treasures she 
might expect, Betty went to bed and dreamed 
that she had lost her emergency fund under 
the teacher's desk in Nan's schoolroom, and 
had to teach a class in senior “ English 
Lit." before she could get it back. But she 
, couldn't remember when Shakespeare was 
born, and the girls stood up on their desks 
and waved their handkerchiefs and screamed, 
and she waved too, because it was the Harvard- 
Cambridge boat race on the Thames. No, it 
was brother Will calling her to breakfast, and 
little Dorothy saying in a sepulchral whisper. 

Oh, hush. Will I Mother said Betty was to 
sleep over." 


i6 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Coming I Wouldn’t sleep over for any- 
thing ! ” Betty called back, making a rush for 
her bath. 

It was such a jolly day. People kept drop- 
ping in to say welcome home, and to tease 
Nan about her “latest fad,” as everybody 
called it. In the evening there was a regular 
party of Betty’s and Will’s friends on the big 
piazza, and before it was over Betty had 
promised to help at six “ coming-out ” teas, 
take part in one play, be on the committee to 
get up another, join a morning "French class 
and a reading-club, and consider taking a 
cross-country ride every Saturday afternoon as 
long as the good weather lasted. 

Up-stairs in her room she took down the 
rose-colored satin dress she had bought in 
Paris, and examined it approvingly. But one 
simply couldn’t wear the same thing at six 
receptions. There was her graduating dress, 
of course, but styles had changed frightfully 
since spring. If only Katie were here to use 
her magic touch on the pink lace evening 
gown that Bob had stepped on at class-supper I 

“ I never can mend it myself ! ” sighed 
Betty. “ I shall need another afternoon dress 


BETTT WALES & CO. 17 

anyway, and a suit, and I did want a new 
riding habit. Mine is horribly rusty. I 
wonder how careful about money weVe got to 
be. And I wonder if Will thought to bolt 
the piazza door.” 

She slipped on a kimono and crept softly 
down the stairs, a slim, golden-haired ghost 
in a trailing robe of silk and lace. Will 
hadn^t locked the door. And there was a 
light in the library, though it was long after 
midnight. 

It's Nan, probably, reading up things to 
teach. I'll go in and bother her and make 
her come to bed.” 

But it wasn't Nan. It was father, poring 
over a big sheet of paper scrawled full of tiny 
figures. Betty closed the door after her, 
crept quietly across the room, and descended 
precipitately upon the arm of her father's 
chair. 

What in the world are you doing here all 
by yourself at this time of night. Father 
Wales ? ” she demanded gaily. 

Mr. Wales looked up at her, still frowning 
absently, with a finger on his place among 
the figures. ** Nothing, daughter ; just look- 


i8 BETTT WALES & CO, 


ing over a contract that I wanted to do a lit- 
tle estimating on before to-morrow/' 

‘‘But it’s horribly late,” objected Betty. 
“ Think how sleepy you’ll be in the morn- 
ing.” 

Mr. Wales smiled faintly. “ Shall I ? Well, 
run along to bed, so you won’t be sleepy too.” 
And he was back at his figures again. 

Betty watched him for a minute, dropped a 
kiss on his puckered forehead, and slipped 
softly away without a word. 

“ He’s just awfully worried,” she reflected, 
as she went up-stairs. Nan and mummy and 
Will don’t realize how changed he is, because 
they’ve been here right along. Why, in these 
three months he’s a different person I ” She 
put the rose-colored satin dress carefully 
back in its cheese-cloth covering. “I won- 
der if we’re really going to be poor. Why, 
this may be the first and the last Paris gown 
I shall ever have I I know one thing. I’m 
going to talk to father, and make him tell me 
just how poor we are now. You can go ahead 
so much better when you understand 
things.” 

But it was such a busy week, what with 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


19 


catching up the threads of the home life that 
had been dropped for so long, helping Nan off, 
and getting Dorothy started in school, that it 
slipped by without the talk that Betty had 
promised herself. On the evening of Nan^s 
departure, however, her opportunity came. 
Will had an engagement, mother was tired, 
and Dorothy very sleepy ; so only Mr. Wales 
and Betty went with Nan to her train. 

It was a fine September evening, and Betty 
craftily suggested that they walk home. The 
down-town streets were too noisy for serious 
conversation, but out on the avenue Betty 
plunged in at once. 

** Father, you^re awfully worried. Please 
tell me why.’^ 

Mr. Wales threw back his head and laughed. 
** Goodness, Betty, but you come right to the 
point ! Suppose I deny that * awfully.^ 

^*You mean because it’s slang?” asked 
Betty anxiously. And isn’t it a good thing 
to come right to the point?” 

Wouldn’t that depend on the point, little 
girl ? Suppose it was a point you had never 
expected to come to, and didn’t want to come 
to, — what then ? ” 


20 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Betty^s face wore its most intent expression. 
*‘But if you had come to it all the same, 
father ” 

Then you^d better get away again as fast 
as possible, and ask little girls not to bother 
their heads about you in the meantime.^^ 
Father’s tone was very brusque and final — 
the one he used when he meant “ no ” and 
was not going to change his mind, no matter 
how much you teased. 

All right, father.” Betty tried ' not to 
show that she felt hurt. ‘‘ I won’t bother you 
again. Only I thought that if I understood 
perhaps I could help a little. I don’t think 
mother really knows how much we ought to 
try to save this winter, and I’m sure Nan and 
Will don’t. You’ve always been so generous 
and let us have just whatever we wanted. I 
want lots of things just now, but I can be 
happy without them.” Betty stopped sud- 
denly, not quite sure where she had meant to 
come out. 

There was a long pause. *^Are you quite 
sure of that — quite sure you can be happy 
without them, little girl?” father asked at 
last. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


21 


Perfectly sure, if I know I’m helping you 
out, daddy.” 

Well, then But I can’t have your 

mother worried, not any more than she is now 
at least.” 

** Oh, but I won’t worry her I ” Betty prom- 
ised eagerly. ** It will just be a secret between 
us two.” 

Mr. Wales smiled at her eagerness. Not 
a very agreeable secret, I’m afraid. Well, 
then, Betty, if you insist, here it is. My busi- 
ness has scarcely paid expenses for three 
months, and a big investment I made in June 
is going all wrong. By Christmas time I shall 
probably know where I stand. Until then I 
need every cent of ready money that I can get 
hold of, and the more things you can be happy 
without, the better. That’s all, I guess.” 

Th-thank you.” Betty felt as if she had 
suddenly been plunged up to her neck in a 
blinding fog that made all the old familiar 
landmarks of life look queer and far away. 

It’s rather bad, isn’t it? But I’ll be very 
economical, and I’ll think up ways of making 
the others economical without their knowing 
it. And you can have my emergency fund 


22 BETTT WALES & CO. 


this very night. That’s ready money. I 

meant to give it to you before, but ” 

There was no use explaining that Nan had 
said it was foolish to give the check back, 
when she would need all of it and more so 
soon for her fall wardrobe. 

Keep it and make it go as far as you can,” 
father told her. ** And don’t think too much 
about these business troubles, or I shall be 
sorry I confided in you.” 

They were turning in at their own door. 

No, you won’t be sorry,” Betty assured him 
proudly. I won’t let you be sorry. Good- 
ness ! I see one way to economize this very 
minute. Mother’s got dozens of lights turned 
on that she doesn’t need.” And she flitted 
gaily ahead to begin her economy program. 
But before she had reached the door, she 
rushed back to whisper a last word in her 
father’s ear. 

** It’s mean not to tell mother too, daddy. 
We could have so much more fun over it if we 
all knew.” 

Fun over it I ” repeated Mr. Wales slowly. 
** Fun over it ! ” Then he reached out and 
caught Betty in a big hug. You’re the right 


BETTT WALES & CO, 


23 


sort, little girl. You stand up and face life 
with a smile. Keep it up just as long as you 
can, child.'^ 

Betty considered, frowning in her earnest- 
ness. I’ve always had the smiling kind of 
life so far, father, haven’t I ? But I’ve wished 
sometimes that I had to get things for myself, 
like Helen Adams and Rachel and K. You 
know I’ve told you about them, and about K.’s 
brother who wants to go to college, and she’s 
going to help. I shan’t mind a bit being 
rather poor — till Christmas,” she added 
prudently. “ Now I’ll go and turn out the 
lights and see that Dorothy is all right, and 
you be telling mother.” 

But father shook his head. Not to-night, 
anyway. You don’t realize the meaning of 
all this yet, Betty. When you do, I’m afraid 
it will look very different to you.” 

I won’t let it,” declared Betty eagerly. 

I said I’d help, and I will. Just try me.” 

Betty went to bed with her pretty head in a 
whirl. This was what they called being out 
in the wide, wide world.” ** The real business 
of life ” that she had talked about so glibly with 
the B’s and Roberta was going to begin at last. 


CHAPTER II 


BETTY WALES, M. A.’^ 

Things did look different in the morning. 
Betty sighed a little as she considered her last 
winter^s suit, which she had relegated to the 
position of a rainy day stand-by, in the light 
of a general utility,” — K.’s delightful name 
for her one street costume. K. and Rachel 
had managed very well with a new suit once 
in two or three years. Well, then, so could 
she, Betty told herself sternly. Just then 
Mary Hooper telephoned to know about the 
Saturday rides. 

I^m afraid you can’t count on me,” Betty 
explained to her. “ No, I’m not too busy, 
Mary, but riding horses are very expensive, 
and I don’t believe I can afford it.” 

Mary’s curt, Oh, very well, I didn’t sup- 
pose you had to consider that. Good-bye, 
then,” stung a hot blush into Betty’s cheeks. 
She didn’t care what Mary Hooper thought of 
her — yes, she did — well, she wouldn’t any more. 

24 


BETTT WALES & CO. 25 

That night at dinner mother looked 
worried, in her turn. 

“ My new cook has given notice, she told 
the assembled family the first time the 
waitress went out of the room, “ and I 
thought she was going to be such a treasure I 

“ What’s her trouble ? ” demanded Will gaily. 

“ She doesn’t like living where they keep 
only two maids. Of course it is difficult to 
manage, especially with such a big house. 
Maggie is too busy sweeping and dusting and 
answering the bell to help at all in the 
kitchen. Yesterday the cook absolutely re- 
fused to clean the silver, and to-night she 
grumbled about wiping the dishes.” 

Then have the third maid back, Alice. 
It was only to be an experiment, this cutting 
down household expenses. I simply won’t 
have you worried.” Father’s voice sounded 
impatient, because he felt so very unhappy. 

I don’t know how I can help worrying 
when everything goes wrong, and I under- 
stood that it was absolutely necessary to cut 
down expenses.” Mother’s voice sounded 
stiff and unsympathetic, because father didn’t 
realize how glad she had been to do her part. 


26 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Then in a flash everything came out. If 
it wasnT absolutely necessary to retrench 
when we talked things over, it certainly is 
now,” father began abruptly ; my New York 
broker has disappeared. It seems he^s been 
on the wrong side of the market lately, and 
to help himself out he^s been borrowing the 
securities that his customers had left on de- 
posit with him. That means that a good 
many thousands of my money have gone, 
with practically no hope of recovery. Td 
been holding that stock as a last reserve. 
I’m afraid this spells ruin.” Father pushed 
back his plate, and got up from the table. 

Please don’t go, father,” begged little 
Dorothy solemnly, catching at his coat tails. 

Are we going to be really and truly poor ? 
Because if we aren’t going to have enough to 
eat by and by, we ought not to waste to- 
night’s dinner, that’s all cooked.” 

Mr. Wales laughed in spite of himself ; and 
then, because Maggie was coming back with 
the salad, he sat down again, and somehow, 
between silence and conversation about the 
weather, dinner was finished. 

Afterward Betty got Will and Dorothy 


BETTT WALES & CO, 27 

down in the furthest corner of the lawn with 
the gray kitten, so that mother and father, up 
on the piazza, could talk things over and 
come to an understanding. 

‘‘ Tell me, Betty, are we going to be really 
and truly poor?” little Dorothy demanded. 
But when Betty kissed her and said no, not 
really hungry and ragged, she was quite 
ready to forget all about it and devote herself 
to teaching the gray kitten to climb trees. 
That left Will and Betty free to discuss the 
family crisis. 

** I shall take that job Cousin Joe West of- 
fered me out at his shops,” Will declared. 

He^s awfully fussy, and father says he works 
his men to death. That^s why I didn't go 
last June. Father thought he could certainly 
get me something better by fall, but nothing 
has turned up yet, and if I go with Joe that 
will be one thing off father's mind.” 

Betty sighed. It's so easy to be poor if 
you're a boy. You'll be earning your own 
living ” 

** I suppose a fellow can live on what I'll 
earn, if he has to,” interrupted Will, making 
a wry face. 


28 BETTT WALES & CO. 


And I shall have to spend father^s money 
just as usual, only not so much of it. Oh, 
dear, I wish I was bright enough to teach, 
like Nan ! 

A penny saved is a penny earned, quoted 
Will sagely. Nan will never save a penn}^, 
that^s one thing sure. I say, didn’t we prom- 
ise the Benson girls that we’d be over to- 
night?” 

When the Benson girls accused Betty of be- 
ing quiet and absent-minded she laughed at 
them and asked if she generally monopolized 
the entire conversation. But on the way 
home she confided to Will that she hadn’t 
heard a word Sallie Benson had said about 
the plans for her coming-out cotillion. For 
almost the first time in her life, except the 
night after her famous runaway in senior 
year, Betty did not fall asleep the minute her 
head touched the pillow. She had promised 
father to help and she meant to, as much as 
ever she could. The hard question was how 
to keep her word. 

Next morning she put her plans into action. 
After breakfast she hunted up Mrs. Wales, 
who was in the sewing-room with a huge pile 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


29 


of mending on the table beside her. Betty 
heroically helped herself to one of Will’s 
stockings, and led up to her errand. 

When does the cook leave, mother?’* 

This evening, I believe. She’s packing 
now. I haven’t dared ask her what she 
means to do about the breakfast dishes.” 
Mother laughed happily. “ We had such a 
nice talk last night, your father and I. I feel 
as if I were back in the days when we were 
first married, and had to count all the pennies 
we spent. After all, being poor isn’t so bad 
as long as we have each other.” 

Betty nodded sagely. She didn’t want 
mother to find out that any one else had 
been confided in first. I knew you’d feel 
so — I mean I think it’s a lotnicer toknow the 
worst. But are you going to get another cook ? ” 
Mrs. Wales nodded. ** I told your father 
that we could get on beautifully with a gen- 
eral maid, but he insists upon two. He 
thinks we must keep up appearances as far 
as possible, as a sort of business asset.” 

^^But a cook doesn’t appear,” Betty sug- 
gested. She’s behind the scenes.” 

Exactly, and that gives the second maid 


30 BETTT WALES & CO. 

a chance to be in front of them. A good 
many business acquaintances of your father’s 
come through the city, and he wants to be 
able to bring them up to dinner without 
worrying about its being properly served.” 

It would have to be properly cooked too, 
wouldn’t it?” Betty reflected solemnly. 

Well, anyhow, there’s no harm in telling 
you what I want. I want to do the cooking. 
I hate sweeping and dusting and mending, 
and the things I mend are frights. But I 
love to mess in the kitchen, and I’ve always 
wanted a chance to do it without a fussy old 
cook to glare at me and make remarks about 
its being her kitchen, and a lot too full of 
people. I don’t know how to make very 
many things, except salads and chaflng-dish 
* eats,’ but I’m wild to learn. Please let me, 
mother. How much does a cook cost? ” 

“ Eight dollars a week, unless she’s a par- 
ticularly good cook and gets ten,” laughed 
Mrs. Wales. ‘‘ But you’re absurd, Betty. 
You don’t realize how much work it is to 
cook for a big family like ours. Besides, 
how would you manage when we had guests? 
It would be very awkward.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


31 


Oh, IVe thought that all out,’^ began 
Betty eagerly. I’d wait till the last minute 
and then just turn things over to the waitress, 
— we’d have to find a very accommodating 
waitress, of course, — whisk off my laboratory 
apron, and appear in the bosom of my family 
arrayed in my best dress.” 

Mrs. Wales shook her head. That sounds 
very simple, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t work. 
You’d be red in the face from bending over 
the fire, and your hands would be spoiled. 
I’m sorry, dear,” as she noticed Betty’s ex- 
pression of disappointment, “ but I’m afraid 
you’ll have to think of some other more 
practical ways of saving money.” 

Betty stabbed viciously at the biggest hole 
in her second stocking. All right, mother,” 
she said at last. “ But please don’t say 
no to my being cook just until you can 
find one. You haven’t found one yet, have 
you ? ” 

Mrs. Wales shook her head. A friend of 
Maggie’s is coming to see me this afternoon, 
but I don’t imagine she’ll do.” 

“ Don’t engage her unless she sounds per- 
fectly splendid,” urged Betty, folding up 


32 


BEITT WALES & CO, 


Will’s stockings and tossing them on top of 
the pile of finished mending. 

A few minutes later she danced back, en- 
veloped in a long, checked gingham apron. 

The new cook, mem,” she announced, 
curtseying gravely. “ And the ould wan is 
gone, mem, so wad yuz plaze be so kind as 
to lave me have the ordhers for the dinner.” 

Betty’s first dinner was a great success. It 
was agreed not to tell father and Will who 
cooked it ; and when father praised the roast, 
and Will loudly lamented the imminent de- 
parture of a cook who could make such 
“ dandy ” lemon ice, Betty blushed pink with 
pride and pleasure. Next morning it was 
only fun to get up early and dress in a 
hurry. But the first relay of toast burned 
up, and the eggs were done too hard, because 
the coffee wouldn’t boil at all and then boiled 
over. Will grumbled, father read his paper in 
gloomy silence, and though mother tried to 
smooth things over, she wore an I-told- 
you-so ” expression, and Betty felt sure she 
would be on hand to help with the next 
breakfast. 

But before that there was luncheon, and 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


33 


Will, who was going out to see about his new 
position, announced that he would come home 
for it. Just as Betty was putting on her big 
apron to begin operations, Mary Hooper rang 
the bell. Betty discovered that Maggie had 
said she was at home, so she slipped off the 
big apron, and went down. Mary was chair- 
man of the play committee, and she wanted 
to get Betty^s ideas about the cast and the cos- 
tumes before she called the rest of her com- 
mittee together. 

College girls are so clever at plays,^’ she 
explained. I thought you and I could save 
a lot of time if we got everything decided be- 
forehand.” 

This wasnT exactly Betty's idea of good 
committee work, but Mary hadn't asked her 
advice on that point, so they set to work. At 
half-past twelve Mary discovered that it was 
raining. 

How jolly ! '' she exclaimed. “ That lets 
me out of a tennis match with the Bensons 
and Ted Farnum, and we can have the after- 
noon clear for this.” 

Then will you excuse me for a few min- 
utes, Mary ? ” Betty asked anxiously. '' Our 


34 BETTT WALES & CO. 

cook has gone, and I^m taking her place. I 
want to be sure that you’ll have some 
luncheon.” 

Mary lifted haughty eyebrows. “ Can’t one 
of the second maids see to that ? ” she asked, 
getting up and going over to the window. 

Oh, well, if it’s going to put you out, I won’t 
stay. Besides, it looks clearer already, so we 
may play tennis after all. Oh, no, thank you, 
I shouldn’t think of staying if you’re going 
to make company of me, as they say in the 
country. I remember at my aunt’s in New 
Hampshire, they never could have any one 
for Monday dinner, because it was wash-day. 
Well, we’ve got a good deal done. I’ll drop 
in at Milly’s, perhaps, on my way home, and 
see what she thinks about our cast.” 

Without waiting to find her apron, Betty 
rushed to the kitchen, fully expecting to find 
Mrs. Wales and Maggie there, and lunch well 
under way, — which would have been rather a 
disgrace to the young lady who had begged 
to be allowed to act as cook, but on the whole 
a comfortable arrangement. Instead, how- 
ever, the kitchen was deserted. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” soliloquized Betty sadly. ** I 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


35 


wonder what mother meant to have. I re- 
member now that she went out. I wonder 
what there is to have. Maggie might know — 
but she probably wouldn’t. I’ll ask her, 
though, if she’s down setting the table.” 

Maggie was laying the table, but she had 
no ideas on the subject of possible luncheon 
dishes. So Betty found some eggs, got a chaf- 
ing-dish ready, and had all her preparations 
made for a delicious omelette, when Will 
came in, exasperated at Cousin Joe’s fussiness, 
and very hungry, and reminded her that he 
hated eggs. 

** Oh, Will I I’m so sorry I Well, anyhow 
you love strawberry jam.” 

“Bread and jam aren’t specially filling,” 
grumbled Will. 

“ Couldn’t you begin on that ? ” suggested 
Betty bravely. “ And in the meantime I’ll 
find you something else that is filling.” 

“ When are we going to have a cook, any- 
how ? ” demanded Will, when Betty had taken 
her seat again, having instructed Maggie to 
slice some cold roast beef. 

“ When are we going to have an experi- 
enced cook, you mean, monsieur,” Betty cor- 


36 BETTT WALES Gf CO. 

rected him gaily. In the pantry she had de- 
cided that she should probably be cross her- 
self in Will’s place, and had therefore resolved 
to take all his faultfinding in good part. 

Because at present you’ve got me, such as I 
am. Suppose you give me a list of all your 
favorite dishes. Will, and I’ll make them, if 
they aren’t too hard. And just to relieve 
your mind I’ll confide to you that mother is 
hunting cooks this very morning.” 

That afternoon Betty got a note from 
Roberta Lewis. 

“ I’m considering working for an M. A. at 
Bryn Mawr,” she wrote. Father is away all 
day, and I don’t know enough people here in 
Philadelphia to keep me from getting lonely. 
Of course in some wa 3 ^s I should lots prefer 
going to Harding, but father wouldn’t consent 
to that. He wants me here whenever he is at 
home. We’re getting to be regular chums. 
We go to the theatre together, and he always 
takes me for supper afterward, because h6’s 
heard that debutantes prefer theatre-suppers 
to almost anything. He wanted to have Aunt 
Nell come down from New York to help him 
give a big party for me ; but I made him see 


BEirr WALES & CO. 37 

how absurd it would be for a staid old lawyer 
like him and a quiet, stay-at-home, ’fraid-of-a- 
man like me, to bother about big fussy parties. 
So we just have nice little dinners for father’s 
old friends, and next summer he is going to 
teach me to ride horseback — I shudder when- 
ever I think of it ! — and to play golf, so that 
we can enjoy more things together. Write me 
what you think about the M. A. 

Roberta.” 

Betty scribbled her answer at once. 

“ I’m doing an M. A. myself, Roberta dear- 
est. It surprises you to hear that, doesn’t it? 
Well, in my case M. A. stands for Mother’s 
Assistant, and so far it’s the hardest course I 
ever took. But if mother ever finds a good 
cook — I’m the cook at present, and I should 
love it if everything didn’t go wrong — why, 
perhaps it will be easier. The other topics in 
my M. A. are mending and dusting and house- 
keeping odds and ends. 

If I am ever married and have any chil- 
dren, I shall bring them up to eat whatever 
there is on the table. Will hates eggs, and 
loves apple-pie. Dorothy hates pie and adores 


38 BETTT WALES & CO. 

ice-cream. Father never eats ice-cream and 
likes his steak rare. Mother wants her steak 
actually burned, and nothing but crackers and 
cheese and coffee for desert ; and father loves 
coffee, but mustn’t drink it. I am just as fussy 
as any of them, but I never shall be again. I 
must stop and get dinner. Pity the poor cook 
of this hard-to-suit family 1 

I think it would be grand to be able to 
write M. A. after your name, but if you want 
to really and truly learn something take my 
kind. 

“ Yours, with her sleeves rolled up, 

** Betty.” 


CHAPTER III 


THAT TEA-ROOM AGAIN 

Betty Wales, arrayed in her cook^s regalia, 
sat by the kitchen table, one eye on the range, 
the o.ther on the fly-leaf of the new cook-book 
that Will had given her. It was scribbled full 
of flgures, which Betty added and subtracted 
and multiplied laboriously, with sighs and in- 
credulous stares at the distinctly unpleasant 
results. 

Three weeks^ hard work, and so far as I 
can see IVe saved the family exactly five dol- 
lars and sixty-four cents. And that Vermont 
maple sugar is boiling over again ! ” Betty 
made a dive for the saucepan in which she 
was cooking maple frosting for father's birth- 
day cake. '' If it tastes burned, what's left of it, 
I shall just give up ! " she declared plaintively. 

Oh, Betty dear I " Dorothy's shrill voice 
and pattering footsteps sounded down the hall. 

You aren't forgetting the kitten's birthday, 
are you ? " 


39 


40 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Of course not,” Betty assured her, tasting 
the frosting critically. She's to have oysters 
and whipped cream. By and by you can whip 
the cream, dearie, but it's too soon now, and 
I'm very busy, so you'd better run and find 
mother.” 

All right. I'm busy too. I've got to tie 
on my kitten's new neck-bow, and she wiggles 
so that it's awfully hard work. And then I'm 
going to give her her box of corks that I 
bought for her.” 

Betty tasted the frosting again, decided that 
it was done, put it away to cool, and went back 
to her figures. 

Burned steak, two dollars,” she murmured ; 
salty ice-cream, a dollar and twenty cents ; 
boiled-over coffee, thirty cents. I don't be- 
lieve I've forgotten anything important that I 
spoiled.” Then her smile flashed out sud- 
denly. “ But real cooks spoil things — why, 
of course they do ! Not so many, maybe, but 
some.” She began stirring the frosting vigor- 
ously. You always hear that figures lie. I 
suppose the reason is because it's so hard to 
put down all about real cooks and other real 
things in figures. Anyway, I've tried to help 


BETTT WALES & CO, 


hard enough. After this I shall always be 
sorry for cooks. I suppose there may be worse 
ways of earning your living, but I shouldn't 
want to try them." 

Here's a letter for you, Betty ! " The 
smallest sister was back again, having evi- 
dently intercepted the postman. And the 
kitten has got a post-card that says ^ Birthday 
greetings.' Isn't it pretty ? My chum at 
school sent it to her." 

Betty declared hastily that the kitten's 
post-card was perfectly lovely, and asked 
Dorothy to put her letter, with the address in 
Madeline's fascinating scrawling hand, and a 
foreign stamp, into the table drawer ; for the 
cook's fingers were sticky, the frosting obsti- 
nately refused to thicken, and dinner-time 
was approaching with alarming rapidity. 

The day after Mary Hooper's ill-timed call 
Betty had delivered an ultimatum : You've 
either got to tend up to things or leave them 
alone. Hereafter, when I'm busy in the 
kitchen I can't stop, no matter what happens. 
Just tell people the truth, please." 

It was trying that the first thing to happen 
should have been an invitation to go automo- 


42 BETTT WALES & CO. 

biling by moonlight ; and missing the second 
— an impromptu tally-ho party, with a corn- 
roast and a barn-dance to follow — would have 
plunged Betty into the depths of woe if she 
had not sternly resolved to “ smile and smile 
and go on cooking,’^ as Katherine had pictur- 
esquely advised her, no matter what hap- 
pened. It was worth the cost too, when 
father called her into the library to tell her, 
in confidence, that he was proud of her, and 
that she was setting Will a splendid example. 

Will was finding Cousin Joe quite as trying 
as he had been led to expect, and as he had 
gone through life hitherto on the easy theory 
that it is foolish to put yourself out much, be- 
cause the people who expect the most of you 
are always cranks, nobody had thought that 
he would stay long with Cousin Joe, who was 
certainly an ideal instance of the theory. But 
though he came home every evening tired 
and discouraged, and grumbled a good deal 
about Cousin Joe’s unfairness and silly no- 
tions, he refused to give up his position. 

“ I'm no quitter. I can stick it out if the 
girls can," he announced doggedly, and on 
his very first pay-day he bought Betty a cook- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 43 

book inscribed “With deep respect, from a 
sympathetic fellow laborer,” which meant a 
great deal from reserved, undemonstrative 
Will. 

Betty suspected that Wiirs admiration was 
at the bottom of her mother’s tacit consent to 
her keeping on as cook. They had never dis- 
cussed the matter after the first interview, but 
Mrs. Wales had gradually stopped visiting 
agencies and looking up advertisements, and 
Betty was beginning to feel that she was ac- 
cepted as “ permanent.” And now some bad 
fairy had put it into her head to see how 
much she had saved father, and all she could 
see was five dollars and sixty-four cents I 

But that didn’t prevent the birthday din- 
ner from being a great success. Three weeks’ 
experience had wrought a wonderful change 
in the new cook’s methods. Not only did she 
“ tend up ” to the business in hand, herself, 
but she could plan work for Maggie, and she 
was no longer too proud to call on mother or 
Dorothy for help if she needed it. So things 
went smoothly, not by happy accident, as 
things had always had a fashion of doing for 
Betty Wales, but because she had planned 


44 BETTT WALES & CO, 

them to go that way. The cream soup did 
not curdle, the roast came on hot and done 
just as mother liked it at one end and as 
father liked it in the middle. The salad was 
crisp and deliciously flavored. The pineapple 
ice was not salty, and if the maple frosting 
was a little inclined to drip off the edges of 
the birthday cake, that was due, as Will 
pompously explained, to “ the extreme age of 
the distinguished person whose semi-centen- 
nial we celebrate, and to the consequent over- 
heating of his cake by fifty burning candles.’^ 

After dinner they went into the library to 
taste a wonderful cereal coffee, which Betty 
felt sure father would like just as well as the 
real thing that he mustnT drink. 

Let me see, Betty,’’ said Will sipping his 
share reflectively. This is the sixth near- 
coffee that glib-tongued salesmen have palmed 
off on you in three weeks.” 

“ It’s only the fifth,” returned Betty in- 
dignantly, ‘^and besides they were all free 
samples.” 

In that case suppose you see if you can’t 
discover some more brands before we settle on 
one for family use,” suggested father gaily. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 45 

Betty made a wry face as she emptied her 
cup. “ The trouble is the directions always 
say ^ the whole secret of success is in the cook- 
ing/ and ‘one trial is a gross injustice/” she 
quoted so solemnly that everybody laughed. 

“ Come and see the kitten eat her whipped 
cream,” begged Dorothy. “ She gets it all 
over her little nose, and she hates to stop and 
wash it off. Besides, I think she ought to 
have more people than just Maggie and me at 
her party.” 

So Betty went out to the kitchen to swell 
the numbers at the kitten^s party, and sud- 
denly remembering Madeline's neglected let- 
ter she slipped away to read it. 

“ Well, I^m coming back to my own, my 
native land,” Madeline wrote. “ Father 
thinks he wants to sub-let the apartment in 
Washington Square. Of course he’ll jolly 
well change his mind before I get to New 
York, and then he’ll waste his substance 
cabling me frantically not to sub-let. And 
perhaps he and mother will come back too, 
later on. But I don’t mind coming along by 
myself. I’ve had enough of Italy and idle- 
ness. My head is full of tales that I want to 


46 BETTT WALES & CO. 

get out of my system and into the magazines. 
I want to talk them over with Dick Blake. 
He^s a frightful cynic, and he^ll be sure to tell 
me that I can never make good. But he can^t 
stop me that way, not till I’ve sat on editors’ 
door-steps for a while and seen for myself. 

Incidentally here I am in London buy- 
ing china madly for the tea-room — yours and 
mine and Babbie’s, that we planned last sum- 
mer. The plans are so lovely that we’ve 
simply got to carry them out. I * elect ’ us to 
do it. I’ve written Babbie to come and spend 
October with me and help at one of my famous 
house-cleanings. You must come too, and 
then we can discuss it — the tea-room, I mean. 
I should hate to hear my house-cleanings dis- 
cussed. And if we don’t have the tea-room^ 
the china will be adorable in the apartment. 
It’s a blue Canton kind, and I’m getting 
mostly double-decker bread-trays, and little 
toast-racks, and mustard pots — such fascina- 
ting squatty fat ones — and pepper grinders. 
If you were here, we’d hunt up an English 
cooking school and learn to make scones and 
bannocks and Bath buns. I’ve asked a queer 
little English woman in my boarding-house 


BETTT WALES & CO. 47 

to give me the recipes. Perhaps you can 
make them out. I can cook only by taste, 
just as I can play only by ear ; and the taste 
of scones and bannocks is as complicated as 
Wagner. I got your letter about being the 
family cook. It will be valuable experience 
for the tea-room. 

“ Come down early in October. Wire and 
1^11 meet you any day after the fourth, when 
my boat is supposed to come in. If either of 
you could get there sooner, it would be terribly 
jolly, because then you could meet me. The 
key to the house is at the tailor’s underneath, 
the cook left her new address on the mantle 
in a pink cloisonn6 jar, and she’ll bring the 
usual black cat for company while you wait. 

“ Yours en route, 

** Madeline.” 

Betty read it all through twice. It was so 
delightfully haphazard and cheerful and 
Bohemian. To-day was the twenty-sixth of 
September. It would be such fun to go to 
New York and share Madeline’s welcome 
home to Bohemia. Babbie would go, of 
course, and they would have famous parties to 


48 BETTT WALES & CO. 

make use of the blue Canton mustard pots. 
And if they should really open a tea-room I 
For the first time since the launching of the 
economy program Betty winked back some 
real tears. Then she carefully turned out the 
lights in the dining-room, which Maggie never 
could remember about, and went back to the 
library to read the family her letter, as she al- 
ways did when any of the Old Guard wrote 
to her. As Will said, the penalty of writing 
entertaining letters to Betty was that she felt 
under obligation to celebrate your epistolary 
ability by turning herself into a town-crier, 
and crying your bon mots from the house-tops. 

And the very next morning came a scrap of 
a note from Babbie : 

I^m going to spend October with Madeline. 
Mother is off paying visits, so I can get away 
easily. Be sure to come right away, because 
we ought to get the tea-room started at once. 
Mother says I may do just as I like about it, 
only of course I know that I can’t stay away 
from her all the time. When she says I can 
do as I like she really means that I may have 
all the money I want. 

Betty dear, if you really want to earn some 


BETTT WALES & CO, 49 

money, why couldn^t you run the tea-room ? 
Madeline will be too busy with her writing. 
Besides, she hates running things. I should 
love it, only there’s mother to be amused. 

Babe is too wrapped up in her beloved 
John to answer any letters. Bob is trying to 
make her father start a newsboys’ home, and 
he says perhaps he will if he can have his own 
home back again. Bob has some little rag- 
amuffin or other up there all the time. I 
prefer tea-rooms myself to newsboys’ homes or 
fiances. 

Babbie.” 

P. S. Jack and I have had a dreadful 
quarrel. He was the one who came to see me 
off, you know, and I never, never dreamed 
we could change our minds. But all is over 
between us. Please never mention his name 
to me again. 

P. S. Do you think we should have the 
tea-room in New York or Harding ? ” 

This letter Betty read and reread, and 
finally put away in her writing-desk without 
so much as mentioning it to any one. But 
that afternoon she went all by herself to have 
afternoon tea at an attractive little shop that 


50 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


had just been opened down-town. She read 
the menu carefully, and finally asked the 
waitress if she might take it away with her. 
She counted the tables, the waitresses, and the 
patrons. She scanned the decorations with a 
critical eye. She frowned when she noticed 
that there were three different kinds of china 
in the tea service that the maid had brought 
her. Then she sat for a long while, sipping 
her tea and trying to remember little details 
of the fascinating Glasgow tea-rooms, and of 
the Oxford Street and Piccadilly shops that 
the B. A/s abroad had haunted so persistently 
in the pursuit of Madeline's dominant in- 
terest." Finally she tried to compare the 
prices on the cards with those at Cuyler's and 
Holmes’s in Harding. And last of all, she ex- 
tracted a tiny silver pencil from her shopping- 
bag, and put down a few figures on the back 
of the menu. But she soon gave up that. 
Hadn’t she just discovered that figures lie? 
And besides, when you can’t even guess at 
rents, and haven’t the least idea how much 
chairs and tables and china cost, and are even 
a little uncertain about waitress’s wages, the 
calculating of the probable expenses per 


BETTT WALES & CO. 51 

month of running a tea-room becomes, to say 
the least, a difficult matter. 

At last, having remembered her responsi- 
bilities about dinner, Betty rushed home and 
into her big apron — she had half a dozen big 
ones now — as fast as possible. She was very 
quiet during dinner, but afterward, as soon 
as she had helped Maggie clear the table, she 
put out the lights, walked into the library, 
and made an astonishing announcement. 

Father dear, if youVe willing and mother 
can get another cook and you won^t all miss 
me too much, I want to go to New York next 
week to see about running a tea-room for 
Babbie Hildreth. We haven’t decided yet 
whether to have it there or in Harding, but 
Babbie thinks I could run it, and I think so 
too.” 

** Why, Betty, don’t be absurd I ” 

That was mother’s comment. Will 
whistled ; Dorothy, scenting the loss of her 
beloved Betty, came over to hug her ; but 
father threw away his cigar, folded his paper 
slowly, and pointed to the arm of his chair as 
the best available seat. 

Now begin again,” he advised, when 


52 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


Betty had established herself comfortably. 

Your proposition does sound absurd, as 
mother says, but perhaps that^s because we 
don^t understand it. To begin with, has Miss 
Babbie Hildreth already gone into the tea- 
room business ? I understood from Miss 
Bohemia's letter of yesterday, that so far the 
sole assets of the tea-room were some double- 
decker bread-trays, whatever those may be, 
and some very fat mustard jars, which hadn't 
yet left London, and which Miss Bohemia 
really wanted for her own use." 

^‘Oh, father, that was just Madeline’s queer 
way of saying it. She’s written to Babbie, 
and Babbie has asked her mother for the 
money, and her mother is willing. So now 
Babbie has written me. Of course there are a 
lot of things still to be arranged,’’ Betty ad- 
mitted reluctantly, but it won’t take Babbie 
and Madeline long to arrange them." 

I see." This time Mr. Wales was quite 
serious. And you think that under the 
circumstances — my circumstances, I mean — 
you would like to join in their project. I’m 
afraid I can’t spare you any capital, little 
girl." 


BETTr WALES & CO. 53 

** Oh, I don’t want you to,” explained 
Betty hastily. The others don’t expect it. 
But I’ve thought it over and — isn’t it likely 
to be a long while before business is good 
again, father ? ” 

** I’m afraid it will be fully a year before 
I’m on my feet again.” 

** Well, I want to help, to be really and 
truly earning something, I mean, like Nan 
and Will. I should perfectly hate to teach, 
but I should love to run a tea-room.” 

** I don’t like the idea of my daughter’s 
going into the restaurant business,” put in 
Mrs. Wales stiffly. 

** Oh, mummy dear I ” Betty abandoned 
her father’s chair for a seat beside her mother 
on the sofa. “ An adorable little tea-room 
isn’t a restaurant. College girls are always 
running tea-rooms. Why, Mary Hooper has 
a friend in Boston who does it, and Mary is 
always telling about her, for all she’s such a 
snob.” 

“ Would you have to sit at a desk near the 
door and see that everybody paid up before he 
could get out ? ” demanded Will, very scorn- 
fully. 


54 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Betty considered. '‘Why, I don't know. 
I might. But if Madeline plans things she'll 
have a desk that the Queen of England would 
be dying to sit at, if she saw it," she ended 
gaily. 

" But are you sure of making money ? " de- 
manded father dryly. " Times are bad " 

" But even in bad times people have to eat," 
Betty took him up hastily. " And if tea is 
sixty cents a pound, and there are piles of 
cups in that, and you sell a cup for ten cents, 
how can you help making money? People 
do, in tea-rooms, or they wouldn't be sprout- 
ing up everywhere. And if it can be done 
I'm sure Madeline and Babbie and I can do 
it. I just know we can ! " 

Mr. Wales's glance traveled from Betty's 
dancing eyes to her mouth with its pleading 
curves. " Well, mother," he said, " shall we 
let her try ? " 

Mrs. Wales hesitated. " I don't like the idea 
at all, but under the circumstances " 

" We'll talk it over and let you know in the 
morning," father suggested. 

" Betty," began little Dorothy forlornly, 
" you said I could be 'sistant cook as soon as 


BETTr WALES & CO, 55 

I learned to toast the bread and not burn it. 
And now I’ve learned. If you go away and 
have a tea-room, I think I ought to be some- 
thing in that.” 

You can be a silent partner, mademoiselle,” 
suggested Will teasingly. 

“ What’s that?” demanded Dorothy. 

“About the same thing as a company, I 
guess,” explained Will. “ Betty can call her- 
self Betty Wales & Co., and you can be the 
Co. See?” 

“ Of course I see,” declared Dorothy with 
great dignity. “ And I think I’d rather be a 
Co. than a ’sistant cook. Don’t forget that 
I’m the Co., Betty.” 

“ I won’t,” Betty promised laughingly. But 
she gave “ Co.” a hug that made the little girl 
gasp for breath. The tea-room might be mere 
fun for Madeline and Babbie, and father and 
mother might look upon it as a foolish fad ; 
but to Betty it was solemn earnest, and the 
unqualified interest and approval of even one 
little girl, who didn’t understand, helped. 


CHAPTER IV 


PLANS AND PARTIES 

Next morning Mr. Wales called Betty into 
the library to tell her she might do as she 
liked about the tea-room. His voice broke as 
he explained that unless things took a sudden 
turn for the better they should probably have 
to give up their house, at least for a year or so. 

“So your present position is likely to be 
abolished,” he went on with a rather forlorn 
attempt at gaiety, “ and I heartily sympathize 
with your wish to be up and doing. I hate 
to think that a daughter of mine needs to 
work, but I’m glad she isn’t afraid to. It 
used to be the fashion for young ladies whose 
families had lost their money to sit at home, 
turning and mending their clothes and re- 
membering better days.” 

“ I know — like Mary Hooper’s great-aunts,” 
laughed Betty. “ That’s so stupid. I’m glad 
I was born later. But, father, did mother 
come around to the restaurant idea ? Because 
56 


BETTT WALES & CO. s7 

maybe Nan or Rachel or somebody could get 
me a place to teach, if mother would be hap- 
pier about it. But girls who want to work 
donH all teach nowadays. Truly they donT.^* 
Mr. Wales laughed. That’s another anti- 
quated notion, is it — that teaching is the only 
* genteel ’ calling ? Your mother and I about 
came to that conclusion last night. Anyway 
we’re quite willing that you should try out 
this project. I will give you the money that 
your board here would cost for the rest of the 
winter. You can use it as capital if you like, 
but I should strongly advise holding it as an 
emergency fund for personal expenses. Tea 
may be sixty cents a pound and ten cents a 
cup, but I imagine you’ll find that’s only one 
very small detail in the budget of a tea-room.” 

Of course,” agreed Betty, not daring to 
avow complete ignorance of the meaning of 
a budget. And thank you ever so much, 
father, for letting me try. If we don’t suc- 
ceed and my emergency fund gives out, will 
you send me some beautiful references as a 
cook ? ” 

Certainly not, after you’ve basely deserted 
us with less than a week’s notice,” retorted 


58 BETTT WALES & CO, 

her father, pulling a yellow curl, and Betty 
danced off, perfectly delighted at the exciting 
prospects before her, to look over her clothes 
and make a list of other things she should 
need “ in her business.” But her ideas of the 
duties of her position were so vague and busi- 
nesslike, and clothes so very uninteresting, 
that she finally decided not to waste her last 
week at home over them. If Madeline 
thought her shirt-waists looked too frivolous, 
she could overwhelm her with the six big 
aprons and Will’s cook-book. 

Betty timed her arrival in New York a day 
after Madeline’s, but only Babbie Hildreth 
met her train. 

“ Madeline’s stuck in the fog down the har- 
bor,” she explained. So when I came last 
night I got the key from the tailor and hunted 
up the cook, all by myself, and she brought 
the cat just as Madeline said she would. And 
then that nice Mrs. Bob, the one we met be- 
fore, helped me give a party.” 

“How did you happen to be giving a 
party ? ” laughed Betty. 

“ Because Mrs. Bob was tired of her own 
apartment. It’s perfectly gorgeous, you know, 


BETTT WALES & CO, 59 

since they got all that money, but she says 
it^s so elegant and well-kept that it spoils the 
informality of things. So the cook swept, 
and we dusted, and Mr. Bob invited the peo- 
ple and bought the food. It was great.^^ 
Babbie gave a comical little skip to emphasize 
her complete satisfaction with life. Then 
suddenly her small face took on its most seri- 
ous expression. And to think how miser- 
able Vwe been lately. Poor mother was glad 
enough to let me come down here, I^m afraid, 
I was so cross. I’m never going to look at a 
young man again, Betty Wales, as long as I 
live. So there now I ” 

Betty patted Babbie’s arm soothingly. 
“ That won’t prevent their looking at you, 
I’m afraid,’' she suggested, at least not un- 
less you stop buying such becoming hats.” 

Babbie frowned. One can’t turn oneself 
into a frump, just on their account. Buying 
becoming hats is one of the chief consolations 
of life. I didn’t mean that I was going to re- 
tire from the world, but I shall never let any 
one fall in love with me, never. That’s settled I ” 
'‘All right,” laughed Betty. “Now let’s 
settle where we’re going.” 


6o BETTT WALES & CO. 


“ That's settled too," explained Babbie. 
“ Mr. Dick Blake is meeting Madeline, be- 
cause I had to meet you. Then we are all to 
meet each other for a grand lunch party, to 
celebrate Mr. Blake’s getting into his scrump- 
tious new offices, — the ones that your Mr. 
Morton arranged for, you know. And to- 
night Mrs. Bob is going to take us all for din- 
ner to a new East Side place that they’ve dis- 
covered." Babbie stopped to survey Betty 
critically. “ You don’t mind wasting to-day, 
do you, and beginning on tea-rooms the first 
thing to-morrow? Your letter sounded as 
solemncholy as Helen Chase Adams when 
she was a freshman." 

Betty laughed. How dreadful I Of course 
I don’t mind. But you see, Babbie, this tea- 
room business is just fun for you, but for me 
it’s dead in earnest. If we can’t make it pay 
pretty well, why, next year I may have to teach." 

Babbie nodded vigorously. '' I see. That’s 
a prospect to make a person solemn, isn’t it ? 
But by next year your father will probably 
be rich again. And I don’t want you to think 
I’m not in earnest too, Betty. I’m going into 
this thing head over heels, just to show a cer- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 6i 


tain person that he doesn’t make one least 
little speck of difference to me.” Babbie’s 
big eyes flashed dangerously. So to-morrow 
we’ll pursue tea-rooms like anything.” 

But ten o’clock the next morning found 
the three pursuers of tea-rooms gathered 
rather languidly around Madeline’s dainty 
breakfast table. Mrs. Bob’s party had been, 
as usual, a continuous performance, beginning 
at a very foreign caf6 in Little Italy, going on, 
because the Italian dessert had proved disap- 
pointing, to a glittering hotel on Fifth Ave- 
nue, thence back to a Yiddish theatre, whose 
leading lady was Mr. Bob’s latest enthusiasm, 
and winding up, very late indeed, at supper 
near the park, after which it took so long to 
get home that Mrs. Bob declared she was 
hungry again and made everybody come up 
to the apartment for more supper. 

If everybody in New York eats as often as 
we did last night, there ought to be a good 
chance for tea-rooms,” said Babbie, sipping her 
coffee meditatively. 

If it makes them feel so sleepy the next 
day, they won’t do it very often,” suggested 
Betty prudently. 


62 BETTT WALES & CO. 




Yes, they will, but they’ll order breakfast 
at eleven instead of at ten,” amended Madeline. 
** Well, now,” she went on briskly, how are 
we going to work ? Having decided to start 
a tea-room, what does a person do next ? ” 

We have absolutely decided, haven’t we ? ” 
asked Betty, to make sure. 

Of course.” Madeline waved a hand at the 
huge box of china that an expressman had 
just delivered. Coming over in the cab 
yesterday, Dick read the story I wrote on ship- 
board — the one I thought was going to make 
me a name instanter — and he says it’s amateur- 
ish. That’s the most hateful adjective in the 
language of Bohemia, and I’ll make him eat 
his words. But meanwhile I’ve got to eat 
something more sustaining than words, and 
I’ve spent all the money I had to live on 
this quarter. So I’ve got to get rid of that 
china. So we’ve got to take it for a tea-room.” 

** If you think this tea-room is being started 
to confirm you in your extravagant habits, 

Madeline Ayres ” began Babbie, in mock 

indignation. 

** Well, the point is that we’ve decided to 
start it,” pursued Madeline calmly, ** and I 





“HOW ARE WE GOING TO WORK?’’ 




4 



I M 








V 




I 


I 



t 

• 4 






« 







I 









» 


• < 


k - 









1 



1 




* 


• • I 4* 


,T 

» . . * 

. • ♦ « 

I ^ 




BETTT WALES & CO, 63 

might add that the china designated as my 
latest extravagance is likely to be its chief 
charm, if not exactly its reason for being. 
Now I should say the next question is where 
to have it. And as it’s such a glorious day, 
let’s go out and explore.” 

The exploring expedition, being conducted 
by Madeline in true Bohemian style, bid fair 
to degenerate into a progressive course lunch- 
eon, leading from one of her favorite tea-shops 
to the next. 

But it’s very instructive,” she declared in 
answer to Babbie’s protests. “ I’ve made a 
beautiful collection of menu cards for us to 
consider to-night. I’ll get Bob Enderby to do 
us a design that will make a regular hit by it- 
self. What’s that, Betty ? Of course a menu 
design isn’t the principal thing. But it will 
be a beautiful feature, like the china. Well, 
this is the sixth cup of tea I’ve had, so I don’t 
mind stopping now. If you girls don’t like 
my methods, suggest something else. I think 
we’ve had a most entertaining morning, and 
garnered in loads of valuable ideas.” 

Well, but what have we actually decided? ” 
demanded Betty, the matter-of-fact. 


64 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Madeline told off the points solemnly on 
her fingers. To have waitresses with soul- 
ful eyes and, if possible, adorable French ac- 
cents. To remember that it is the special 
features that people tell their friends to go 
and see, but the food must be passable too, or 
they’ll never come twice. To have immacu- 
late linen, and china that matches. To pro- 
vide dusky corners for romantic couples.” 

Babbie sniffed. I hate romantic couples I ” 

“ They order recklessly,” Madeline argued. 
“ Therefore, for mercenary considerations, they 
must be encouraged.” 

“ But aren’t those things we would have 
done anyway ? ” pursued Betty. I think 
we ought to find a place and get started, and 
then look out for the features.” 

Madeline considered. “ That sounds sen- 
sible. Well, then, let’s discuss sites.” 

Wouldn’t it be a good plan to know some- 
thing definite about rents? ” suggested Betty, 
who foresaw that Madeline’s next move would 
be a leisurely promenade up Fifth Avenue, 
which would be very pleasant but productive 
of no tangible results. 

“ Rents — of course. I’ll tell you what ! ” 


BETrr WALES & CO, 65 

Madeline had had another inspiration. “ I 
know a man who is in real estate — the one we 
rent our place from. I’ll call him up and ask 
him if he’s too busy to enlighten us this very 
afternoon.” 

Madeline came back from the telephone in 
high spirits. ‘‘ He will be dee-lighted to see 
us. Oh, dee-lighted is out of fashion, isn’t it, 
since I went away? Well, proud and happy 
then. Come along. It’s only a little way 
from here, and we can do up the whole thing 
before dinner.” 

But the whole thing ” proved much more 
complicated than Madeline had supposed. 
The agent treated them in a businesslike way, 
which was really very nice of him. Babbie 
said afterward, considering their vague and 
even childlike ideas on the subject of what 
they wanted. He had half a dozen suites on 
his books that seemed to Madeline suitable, 
and she went over them easily, suggesting 
their respective advantages to the other two 
girls, who were less familiar than she with the 
ins and outs of New York life. 

“ This is really the best, I think,” she de- 
cided at last, pointing to a Fifth Avenue address. 


66 BETTT WALES & CO. 


It^s a rather expensive location,” sug- 
gested the agent politely. ‘‘ But perhaps 
that’s no object ” — with a glance at Babbie’s 
exquisite little figure. 

“ Oh, yes, it is,” Betty assured him sol- 
emnly. “ You see we want to make a lot of 
money. How much is the rent, please ? ” 

The agent’s figures fairly took the girls’ 
breath away. And I believe they prefer a 
seven years’ lease,” he added. 

“ Seven years ! ” repeated Babbie incredu- 
lously. “ Why, we shall all be mar — dead in 
seven years, probably. A month’s rent at 
that rate would take up about what I think 
mother meant to give me. But then she’ll 
have to give me more. Which is the very 
cheapest place, please ? ” 

The agent pointed it out, but it was only 
cheap by comparison. And then, as if mat- 
ters were not bad enough already, he made a 
disheartening suggestion. ** You ought to 
have at least capital enough to keep you go- 
ing for a year,” he said. You couldn’t hope 
to make much the first year, you know. 
That’s usually reckoned a dead loss, in com 
servative business estimates, I believe.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 67 

The girls exchanged glances of consterna- 
tion. 

We're very much obliged," said Babbie, 
with a fine combination of dignity and her 
sweetest smile. But I'm afraid we can't de- 
cide on anything to-day. We may be 
back " 

That's all right," the agent cut her short. 

Always very glad to be of service. Good- 
day." 

“ He doesn't want us to come back," Babbie 
declared hotly, outside the door. He's 
afraid we wouldn't pay the rent on time." 

** We probably shouldn't, any such rents as 
those," Madeline assured her. We acted 
like babes in the wood, I suppose. Never 
mind. We'll ask Bob Enderby and Dick. 
They'll know what to do. You were jolly 
right, Betty, about beginning on the essen- 
tials." 

That night Mrs. Bob's sitting-room was the 
scene of a solemn council of war. Dick 
Blake was scribe, Henri, the Enderbys' cook, 
who had once conducted what Dick irrever- 
ently described as the slowest quick lunch 
place in town, was called in as an expert. 


68 BETTT WALES & CO. 


along with the girl in the top flat, because 
her two cousins had had a tea-room, until one 
of them discovered that drawing caricatures 
of the customers paid much better than sell- 
ing them sandwiches and tea. 

‘^But it was a splendid thing — that tea- 
room,” explained the girl earnestly, because 
Arline never knew she could draw until then. 
She sat at the desk, you see, and took checks, 
and there wasn’t much she could do, so she 
got to sketching and thought it was fun, and 
went into an evening class, and now she’s got 
two things in the big autumn exhibit.” 

** Listen to that,” cried Mr. Bob with en- 
thusiasm. ** Which of you is going to sit at 
the desk?” 

** I suppose I am,” confessed Betty, and I 
haven’t the least talent for drawing, so there 
won’t be any great artist discovered in our 
tea-room.” 

** Well, my other cousin got married 
through the tea-room,” explained the girl 
from the top flat, naively. They sold candy 
there, and she married the man they bought 
their candy boxes of. He’s a millionaire.” 

** Hear ! Hear ! ” cried Mr. Bob. “Now 


BETTT WALES & CO, 69 

which of you is going to get the million- 
aire? ” 

Come, Bob, do be serious,” begged Made- 
line. ‘‘ We want to get at the facts.” 

A millionaire is a very valuable fact,” ob- 
jected Mr. Bob flippantly. “ That’s all, 
Henri, except that we shall want an extra 
fine supper by and by. Now, Miss Andrus, 
tell us some more about the profits of tea- 
rooms, the legitimate ones, if Madeline insists 
upon it.” 

But Miss Andrus was vague about legiti- 
mate ” profits. She only knew that her cousin 
had had a darling shop, and had hated to give 
it up. Then she went over to the piano and 
played dreamy music, while Richard Blake 
and Mrs. Bob and the girls struggled with 
their estimates. 

When they had finished, Madeline’s brow 
puckered. It’s going to be too big for us to 
swing, I think. Mrs. Hildreth might give 
you all that money. Babbie, but I don’t think 
we ought to take it.” She swept the papers 
together. “ Enjoy our society while you have 
it, ladies and gentlemen. To-morrow we’re 
going up to Harding to open a tea-room.” 


70 BETTT WALES & CO. 

“ But, Madeline,'' began Betty, are you 
sure " 

I'm not sure of anything except that rents 
are lower there, because it would be absurd if 
they weren't, and that those college girls eat 
and eat, and they appreciate stunty features 
beyond anything. Now Cuyler's isn't stunty 
and Holmes's isn't stunty. With that china 
and the menu card that Bob is going to do for 
us — I forgot to ask you before. Bob, but of 
course you will — and all the other features 
that we can easily think up, why, at Harding 
our fortune is made. I can't see how we ever 
hesitated ! " 

“ But if you go up there we can't patronize 
you," objected Mrs. Bob forlornly. 

Oh, yes, you can," Madeline assured her 
promptly, ‘‘you can motor up. And Dick 
can see that your escapade gets into the so- 
ciety columns of all the leading dailies. In a 
month it will be the fashion to motor up from 
New York for a cup of tea." 

“ Madeline," said Dick severely, “ you're 
a persuasive sophist. Who holds the control- 
ling interest in this tea-room, anyhow ? " 

“Babbie, I suppose," admitted Madeline 


BETTT WALES & CO. 71 

cheerfully. “ Because she furnishes all the 
money — or all that^s worth mentioning, at 
least. But Betty furnishes the sense, and I 
furnish the inspirations. Now what^s the 
matter with that combination ? 

Aren^t you about through with your busi- 
ness ? demanded Mr. Bob irrelevantly, from 
his place by the piano. Because Miss Andrus 
is hungry, and Tm starved.’^ 

Betty partook of Henri’s famous club sand- 
wiches and Turkish coffee in forlorn silence. 
She ought not to have come. She ought to 
have realized that Madeline’s haphazard meth- 
ods were splendid for getting up college 
shows,” but not to be relied on when one’s 
bread and butter had to be earned. Madeline 
was in a corner by the fire talking earnestly 
with Mrs. Bob, who was saying something 
that made Madeline hug her and presently 
rush over to Betty and Babbie to explain. 

The lovely Mrs. Bob wants to invest in 
our tea-room,” she told them. You say 
your mother spoke of four hundred, Babbie. 
Well, Mrs. Bob says she’ll put in the same, 
and after Betty’s salary is paid and the 
other expenses, the profits are to be divided 


72 BETTT WALES & CO, 

— that’s what you said was right, isn’t it, 
Dick ? ” 

But half my profits go to Madeline,” Mrs. 
Bob took her up, for the inspirations.” 

Then I know mother will want half hers 
to go that way, too,” put in Babbie, and I 
shall take the other half, to pay her up for 
being pessimistic about profits. She just 
laughed when I spoke of them.” 

Well, it will be all kinds of fun, anyway,” 
said Madeline. Goodness, but I feel as if 
the worst was over now ! Does any one 
know about early trains up to Harding ? By 
the way, father hasn’t cabled, so I suppose 
this domicile is to let. Just spread the re- 
port, please, everybody, and I’ll come back in 
a few days to see about it. It’s just as well, 
because I suppose I’ve got to live in Harding 
now. I never could manage long-distance in- 
spirations.” 

The three girls departed early to pack and 
telegraph Mary Brooks Hinsdale that her 
standing invitation ” to come and visit her 
should stand no longer unheeded by her little 
friends of old. 

So perhaps it hadn’t been a wasted day after 


BETTY WALES & CO. 73 

all, Betty thought, falling asleep while Made- 
line was still busily discussing where they 
should live in Harding, and how much they 
ought to pay the tea-shop for their meals, if 
they ate them there. 


CHAPTER V 


THE EEAL T&ING 

Mary^s beamish ” smile was dimmed 
when she met her guests at the station. 

“ I^m just terribly glad to see you all,” she 
explained, “and to-morrow we can begin to 
have some fun. But to-night I have an awfully 
particular faculty dinner-party on, and what 
do you think ? My cook has gone and caught 
the jaundice.” Mary’s tone was positively 
tragic. 

“ This is what you get for marrying a dis- 
tinguished member of the faculty,” Madeline 
told her, patting her shoulder sympathetically. 
“ But don’t you give that very particular din- 
ner-party another thought, my child. What’s 
the point of having a full-sized catering com- 
pany invade your happy little home if you 
don’t make use of them?” 

“ A catering company ? ” Mary stared. 
“ There isn’t such a thing in Harding.” 

“ Well, a tea-shop corporation then,” 
74 


BETTT WALES & CO. 75 

Madeline amended briskly. We are that, 
you know. We’ve come up here to establish 
ourselves. Meanwhile we are not above dis- 
playing our talents for the benefit of our very 
best friends. Betty says she can cook, and 
Babbie and I are bursting with ideas for 
original menus and beautiful table decorations. 
Have you a waitress ? ” 

“ Yes, but she’s very green and needs piles 
of coaching. Betty, please explain a few of 
Madeline’s riddles.” 

Come up to Cuyler’s first,” suggested Bab- 
bie. ** It’s such a very long story.” 

So the story was told, in all its ramifications, 
over many cups of Cuyler’s hot chocolate, and 
Mary went into ecstasies over the idea of a 
tea-shop in Harding, and into more ecstasies 
over the prospect of having Betty, and prob- 
ably Madeline, so near her. Then she re- 
turned to the subject of her dinner. 

Would you really cook it, Betty? ” 

Would you really trust her to cook it ? ” 
jeered Madeline. 

“ Yes, because there’s absolutely nothing 
else to be done,” said Mary, so dismally that 
everybody else shrieked with laughter. 


76 BETTT WALES & CO. 

“ Very well then/^ agreed Madeline. You 
and Betty go and do your marketing, and 
Babbie and I will examine tea-room sites. 
We ought not to lose any time, you know,” 
she added impressively, with a sly glance at 
Betty. 

** Don’t decide everything without me,” 
begged Betty innocently. 

“Of course not,” Madeline promised, with a 
very solemn, responsible air. “ Come on. 
Babbie. Oh, I say, is that Polly Eastman 
going into the bookstore? ” 

“ Not at all likely,” laughed Babbie, rush- 
ing off. “ I never knew Polly to buy a book.” 

The pursuit of Polly ended all serious busi- 
ness for that morning. It transpired that she 
had just been elected a member of the senior 
play committee, and she had resolved to buy a 
set of Shakespeare in honor of the occasion. 
First Babbie and Madeline must help her 
choose the books, then they must explain 
themselves, and as that was “such a long 
story,” they all retired to Holmes’s to talk it 
over and have ices. Then Polly had to hurry 
back for a noon recitation, and it would be a 
shame not to rush up to the campus with her 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


77 


and sa}^ hello to Georgia Ames. And Georgia, 
who also had a twelve o^clock class, begged 
them, with tears in her big brown eyes, to 
hang around till one, and then have eats 
with her down-town. So Madeline wrote a 
note to Mary, who would be relieved not to 
have so many people to lunch, and bribed a 
freshman friend of Georgia’s to deliver it on 
her way home. And she and Babbie sat on 
the steps of College Hall in the warm October 
sunshine, surrounded by a crowd of friends, 
old and new, to all of whom Madeline con- 
fided, under the strictest pledges of secrecy 
and with much delightful mystery as to 
where and when and by whom, the fact that a 
new and particularly ^^stunty” tea-shop was 
to be started right away in Harding. 

I should make my fortune as an advance 
advertising agent,” she told Babbie com- 
placently, as they hurried up to Mary’s after 
lunch. Getting everybody properly excited 
is awfully important, but I’m afraid Betty 
won’t appreciate that, and will think we 
ought to have found a place. Did you hap- 
pen to notice any that would do ? ” 

Babbie considered. Why, any place down 


78 BETTT WALES & CO. 

on Main Street would do well enough, I should 
think, but they're all full, aren't they? I 
don't suppose any store would move out to 
let us in." 

There must have been some vacant places 
that we didn't notice," said Madeline cheer- 
fully. “ We'll just tell Betty that we think 
she ought to choose, as long as she's going to 
run it. That will throw the responsibility on 
her." 

“ I don't see how it will find us a place, 
though," said Babbie gloomily. “ And we've 
forgotten the water-color paper for Mary's 
place-cards." 

Mary embraced her guests almost tearfully 
when, the dinner-party having taken its staid 
departure, the cook and her assistants re- 
turned to the “ realms of day," as Madeline 
poetically designated the library. 

I had awful times explaining," Mary told 
them. They pricked up their ears at the 
place-cards. The soup got them seriously in- 
terested, and the salad positively went to their 
heads. I muttered something about a new 
cook, and I could see every woman at the 
table privately resolving to get her away from 


BETTT WALES & CO. 79 

me forthwith/^ Mary chuckled. “ When 
you get ready to establish a catering branch, 
111 write you a screaming advertisement like 
this : 

“ Bemember Mrs. Rinsdale’s Dinner and hoio 
Envious it made you 

And Patronize her Caterers^ Betty Wales & Co.' ^ 

Betty smiled and then sighed. We canl 
establish branches until we’ve started, can we? 

And we can’t seem ” 

Keproach us not, fair maiden,” Madeline 
broke in. You are hereby elected commit- 
tee on rooms, isn’t she. Babbie? You go 
ahead and choose, and we’ll agree to anything 
you decide.” 

Next morning the committee on rooms an- 
nounced her plan for a systematic campaign. 

wish you two would come and help look, 
but if you do, remember that we can’t stop to 
talk with Georgia or any one else we meet, 
and we can’t do any shopping or eating until 
after half-past twelve.” 

But a brisk walk the whole length of Main 
Street only served to confirm Madeline’s and 
Babbie’s fears. Every building was occupied. 

“ We’ll go in somewhere and ask what to 


8o BETTT WALES & CO. 


do when you want to start something/^ Betty 
decided, bound not to lose faith in systematic 
procedure. You do the talking, Madeline.” 

** Why, you might persuade some property 
owner to build for you,” suggested the jewel- 
er's clerk, whom Madeline rushed in upon 
with her question. 

Thanks, but we want to move in about 
day after to-morrow,” Madeline told him 
grandly. 

Well, I presume you've all heard the old 
saying, ‘ If wishes were horses every Harding 
girl would ride,' ” retorted the clerk with a 
grin and a wink. 

Horrid thing ! ” said Babbie, when they 
were outside. He thinks we're college girls 
off on some kind of a queer lark. We'll show 
him ! Where next, Betty ? ” 

Betty was staring up the hill with an air of 
profound discouragement. think we 

ought to look at the side-streets,” she decided 
at last. I don’t believe it’s any use consid- 
ering up-stairs rooms.” 

“I feel like the senior play committee,” 
said Madeline, as they began their conscien- 
tious tour, hoping against hope that they 


BETTT WALES & CO. 8i 


should find just the right thing lurking around 
some corner off Main Street. We read all 
the impossible Elizabethan dramas that any- 
body could hear of, we hunted up Hindu 
plays, and made frantic efforts to hunt up 
Japanese ones ; and some particularly earnest 
member even wrote a play herself. And all 
the time we knew as well as anything that 
Billy Shakespeare was our man.^’ 

Well, if that^s the way you feel about this, 
where, please, is our Billy Shakespeare ? ” in- 
quired Babbie a trifle irritably. 

Madeline smiled mysteriously. We shall 
find him before the set of sun,^^ she declared 
oracularly. I have a leading to that effect.^^ 

“ Couldn’t you make it before high noon, 
just as well? ’’sighed Babbie. I’ve got on 
new shoes.” 

Betty looked troubled. Go home and 
rest, Babbie dear,” she begged. Two of us 
can do this just as well as three.” 

So Babbie went off, after a few polite pro- 
tests, and Madeline and Betty finished up the 
cross-streets without seeing anything that 
could possibly be turned into a “ stunty ” tea- 
room. 


82 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Well, can there be anything up nearer the 
college that we haven^t noticed ? asked 
Betty, trying to keep up the businesslike air 
appropriate to systematic research, but feeling 
very silly and completely discouraged. 

“ All boarding-houses, isn’t it, right down 
to the theatre ? ” said Madeline. 

“ Shall we go and look ? ” suggested Betty 
timidly. “ I can’t quite remember what’s be- 
tween the florist’s and that little white house 
that a crowd of juniors had last year.” 

Nothing,” returned Madeline promptly, as 
they started up the hill. “ Don’t you know 
— there’s a wide lawn, and you go back across 
it to that big barn that the riding man had 
for his horses ? He’s moving out, by the way. 
I met him yesterday, and he assured me that 
’e missed them queer moon-lighters most 
hawfully. He’s going to move somewhere 
where he can have a big ring and some 
hurdles in a meadow. I’m afraid I rather 
led him to suppose ” — Madeline looked prop- 
erly conscience-stricken — ‘‘ that we might be 
up this afternoon to have a lesson in jumping. 
But it looks as if we should be too busy.” 

“ Do you think there’s any use hunting 


BETTY WALES & CO. 83 

much longer ? demanded Betty, who was fast 
losing courage. 

** Of course, Madeline shot back unhesita- 
tingly. ** Something will turn up ; it always 
does — if you turn it. Let's make perfectly 
sure about this nearer-the-campus proposi- 
tion." 

But there was nothing there, and Madeline, 
not daring to suggest refreshing themselves at 
Cuyler's, after Betty's strict prohibitions, led 
the way up the high terrace to the back steps 
of Science Hall, where they could rest and 
consider what to do next. Right across from 
them was the little white house with the big 
barn looming up behind it. 

“ What a shame that isn't a house," said 
Betty sadly. How did such a tiny house 
ever happen to have such a big barn, I 
wonder?" 

It didn't," explained Madeline. “ The 
barn went with the house over on that other 
street — the one that used to be a big mansion — 
and now is only part of a factory. But if 
the barn were a house, Miss Wales, the riding- 
master wouldn't be moving out of it. It 
would have been appropriated long ago by 


84 BETTT WALES & CO, 

some thrifty boarding-house keeper, and we 
shouldn't be sitting here staring at it and 
wondering whether the owner could be per- 
suaded to make it over into a house in 
hurry-up order." 

I wasn't wondering that," said Betty 
simply. I was wondering if we could pos- 
sibly use it as it is. There's nothing else that 
I can see, and it's an awfully nice barn. Don't 
you remember how Mr. Ware showed us 
through once when he first moved in, and how 
proud he was that it was all paneled in solid 
oak, with those lovely great beams in the 
ceiling? And afterward the pickle heiress's 
father wanted to buy the beams for his 
library, and he would have, too, only the 
owner was in Europe and the pickle man 
couldn't wait to cable." 

“ Yes, I remember," agreed Madeline. “ It's 
a beautiful barn, but it's a barn nevertheless, 
with stalls and mangers and grain-bins 

and " Madeline paused abruptly and 

stared across at the barn through half-shut 
eyes for a long minute. Why, of course it 
will do," she announced briskly. Of all the 
idiots — to sit here gaping ! Come on ! " 


BETTT WALES & CO. 85 

And grasping Betty arm, she dragged her in 
a headlong race down the terrace, across the 
road, and up the drive to the big barn. 

Oh, I'm so glad it's open," she exclaimed 
breathlessly. Now I can show you. I see it 
all myself plain as anything. Long narrow 
tables in the stalls — ideal nooks for romantic 
couples. Big sociable round tables out here. 
Ferns and oak branches in the mangers. 
Bins transformed into linen and china cup- 
boards. Old sporting prints on the walls — 
father has some beauties tucked away some- 
where. Gargoyles and candlesticks and 
Flemish lamps scattered around in dark cor- 
ners. Lights — let me see — oh, yes, carriage 
lamps for lights. An open fire — we simply 
must have that — it's the one thing lacking. 
Why, Betty Wales, there's nothing like it 
anywhere ! People will go crazy over it, and 
we shall make our everlasting fortunes. See, 
this little room back here — it's a harness- 
room, I suppose — is just the thing for the 
kitchen. Why, it's perfect, and the rent will 
be a mere song. Come and tell Babbie this 
minute. 

“ And to think that it was Betty and not I 


86 BETTT WALES & CO. 


who had the inspiration ! Madeline sighed, as 
she ended her enthusiastic recital to Babbie and 
Mary. “ When Mrs. Bob and Mrs. Hildreth 
are paying me for supplying them, too. It's 
disgraceful.^^ 

But, Madeline — it was the first chance 
Betty had had to get in a word — I only said 
I wondered if it would do, and I^m not sure 
yet. Where could we put the range and 
the sink in that harness-room ? Barns don^t 
have furnaces, do they ? Even if there could 
be an open fire, that wouldn't make it warm 
enough in winter ; and I doubt if carriage 
lamps would make it light enough. Those 
things are even more important than your be- 
loved features." 

** Betty," said Madeline severely, what is 
the matter with you ? You ought to be danc- 
ing around on one foot in your childish glee. 
You're not a practical person. You weren't, 
I mean, when I knew you." 

'' She's growing up, silly," Mary Brooks an- 
swered, with an arm around Betty. ** And 
it's very lucky she is, if you're going into this 
thing seriously. Now you telephone your 
riding-man to see who owns this stable, and 


BETTT WALES & CO. 87 

then we can make sure it’s not already rented 
again, and that the rent isn’t beyond you. 
And if everything is all right so far, Betty 
and I will go and look the place over in the 
true scientific spirit. You and Babbie can 
come along if you like, but I don’t consider it 
necessary.” 

Hear the experienced-housekeeper-wife- 
of-an-experimental psychologist talk I ” jeered 
Madeline. “ Run along and cast your evil 
eye on my scheme if you want to. But it 
will work, practical or not practical. It’s 
simply too lovely not to work.” 

I adore your logic, Madeline,” declared 
Mary admiringly. You’d better come too, 
after all.” 

So, first having assured themselves about 
the rent, the four set out. Babbie sniffed 
daintily as they went inside. 

** Everything is to be varnished over,” 
Madeline explained, '' walls, floor, everything. 
Some of the rough places should be planed 
down a little, but we’ll leave the dents alone. 
It will be a stunning effect in the lamplight 
—quite like an old English castle.” 

*^The stalls are too narrow for two rows 


88 BETTT WALES & CO. 


of chairs and a reasonably wide table,” an- 
nounced Mary, from the depths of one of 
them. The romantic couples will knock 
plates.” 

Then donT haye chairs. Build in benches 
on the sides, and take away the mangers in 
some stalls to make more room for big parties 
who prefer to be by themselves — the getting- 
into-societies celebrations and all that kind of 
thing.” 

That sounds possible. Now about the 
kitchen,” pursued Mary. Betty, come and 
look at this harness-room again. I believe 
it might do. There^s running water here 
and ” 

Babbie sat down on the steps leading to the 
loft. “I’ve only said ^ oh ’ and ^ ah ’ so far, 
like the chorus in a Greek play, but just 
watch me work at getting us started. And I 
may have a bright thought some day.” 

Just then the agent arrived, Mary and Betty 
came back, and all four girls fired questions 
and suggestions at the poor man so fast and 
furiously that he lost his head and yielded 
every point, promising to shellac the whole 
interior, put up a stove that would “ heat the 


BETTl^ WALES & CO. 89 

place red-hot/^ and carriage lamps with re- 
flectors that would make it “ blaze with light,” 
and a big fireplace at one end of the room, 
since Madeline declared it to be an absolute 
necessity. And he guaranteed to have the 
barn swept and garnished and ready for occu- 
pancy within ten days. Meanwhile the girls 
could install the kitchen flttings, and order 
their furniture. 

“ And engage a cook and decent waitresses,” 
added Mary portentously. And if you do 
that in ten days I shall be green with envy.” 

But Babbie did it, without, as she expressed 
it, lifting a little Anger. She happened to 
meet Belden House Annie on the campus, 
and during their interview it developed that 
Annie had a pretty sister Nora, who would 
gladly come and be waitress, and an Aunt 
Bridget, who could cook to the quane^s taste, 
or the prisidint’s.” 

We’ll have ^ quane’s ’ style Mondays, 
Wednesdays and Fridays,” suggested Made- 
line, and ^ prisidint’s ’ style the rest of the 
time. That is, if that idiotic carpenter ever 
gets the tables right.” 

The carpenter, Madeline declared, was wear- 


90 BETTT WALES & CO. 

ing her to a thread ; but Babbie, who was 
pricking her pretty fingers hemming table- 
linen, and Betty, immersed in lists of pots 
and kettles, groceries and silverware, heart- 
lessly refused to come to her rescue. 

So Madeline relieved her mind by much 
grumbling, and in the intervals of her super- 
vision developed new features with a joy- 
ous abandon that threatened to reduce the 
Hinsdales' scholastic menage to chaos. Dr. 
Hinsdale came home one afternoon to find his 
study darkened, the fioor and table strewn 
with bits of multi-colored paper and paste- 
board, and Madeline, in a studio apron, try- 
ing the effect of her latest inspiration in 
candle-shades on the desk lamp. 

I’m going to make a different design for 
each stall,” she explained cheerfully, without 
looking up when the door opened. “ That 
will be more interesting to make, and when a 
thing is interesting to make it’s more likely 
to turn out well, isn’t it now ? Oh, I thought 
it was only Mary ! I beg your pardon. I 
know I shouldn’t have come in here, but they 
had table-cloths and dish-towels spread around 
everywhere else. The first day it rains we’ll 


BETTT WALES & CO, 


9 ^ 

treat you to a free lunch, Dr. Hinsdale, to pay 
up. Oh, you’ve got — there’s some one else I 
Why didn’t you tell me?” 

As Madeline fled precipitately, she heard 
“ Proxy’s ” pleasant laugh. 

** We’re disgraced forever,” she announced 
tragically to the sewing-party. “ Prexy will 
probably proclaim a boycott upon us at to- 
morrow’s chapel.” 

But he sent word instead, by Professor Hins- 
dale, that he wanted to be counted in for the 
free lunch. 

“ He may, if he’ll let us tack our posters 
on the campus trees,” agreed Madeline 
calmly. 

“ Posters I ” cried Betty and Babbie in a 
breath. 

Madeline nodded. “ I’m designing one. 
It’s stored under the sofa in Mary’s pink and 
gold reception room. I’ll get it. It’s all done 
but the name.” 

Why, we haven’t any name ! ” cried Bab- 
bie. 

^‘I thought you called yourselves Betty 
Wales & Co.,” put in Mary. 

''That’s what we are, of course,” agreed 


92 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Madeline, reappearing with her poster, ** so 
we’d better call ourselves something else, 
hadn’t we ? Everybody can see that Betty is 
a regular feature. A name should bring out 
unexpected qualities. Besides, Betty wouldn’t 
want her name to be stuck up on a sign.” 

That’s a good theory about the unexpected 
qualities,” said Mary, “ but I’d like to see you 
work it.” 

Madeline sighed plaintively. As if it was 
anything against a theory that you can’t work 
it. I furnish the theory. It’s only fair for 
some one else to furnish the name.” 

“ Old Barn Tea-Shop,” suggested Mary. 

Sounds sentimental,” objected Babbie. 

And rickety,” laughed Betty. 

“ The Coach-and-Four Tea-Shop,” from 
Mary again. That’s certainly the height of 
elegance.” 

“ But it’s humpy to say,” Madeline told her, 
** and possibly a little too elegant for us to live 
up to.” 

The Saddle and Stirrup,” was Dr. Hins- 
dale’s offering. 

“That’s lovely,” declared Madeline, “just 
like a quaint old English inn. But it’s too — 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


93 

well, too sophisticated for us. College girls 
wouldn't take to it." 

“ Tally-ho Tea-Shop sounds rather neat," 
said Babbie reflectively, but I don't know 
that it brings out any of Madeline’s un- 
suspected features." 

“ Why, yes, it does," Madeline declared. 

It suggests dash and pleasant glitter and snap 
— and general stuntiness." 

“ And ear-splitting horns," added Mary sar- 
castically. 

But college girls love to blow horns,” Betty 
reminded her. 

Mary grinned. I adore it myself," she 
admitted, “ but I try to live up to the dignity 
of my position." 

Madeline had been sketching in some letters 
rapidly on her poster. Tally-ho Tea-Shop 
Alls the space I left most beautifully. I'll 
copy this in oils on thin wood, and we'll nail 
a gargoyle to the big tree in our front yard and 
let the sign dangle out of his mouth. Mary, 
be a jewel and lend us your gargoyle. Ours 
are all needed inside." 

It was certainly a strenuous week. 

If anybody had made us slave the way we 


94 BETTT WALES & CO. 

have over this tea-shop,” Babbie declared, ** we 
should have called it cruelty to animals and 
children. And I don^t believe we could have 
done it except up here at Harding, where 
everybody throws things together between 
classes.” 

Just to be sure that everything was ** thrown 
together,” they gave a private view, on the 
evening before the opening day, for the Hins- 
dales, Georgia, Polly Eastman, and a few 
other chosen spirits, who pronounced the 
Tally-ho Tea-Shop ‘‘very neat,” “a gem,” 
“ adorable,” “ too cute for words,” or “ truly 
stunty,” according to their favorite adjectives. 
The open fire, the carriage lamps, and the 
darkened oak gave just the effect of dim 
splendor that Madeline had wanted. The 
bits of old brass tempted one to exploring ex- 
peditions ; the double-decker bread-trays made 
one long to order them filled and eat them 
empty. 

“ When we get the prints and the candle- 
shades, it will be about perfect,” declared 
Madeline, surveying the scene complacently. 

“ You need a horseshoe over the door for 
luck,” suggested Dr. Hinsdale. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


95 

So Georgia rushed out to a near-by stable 
to get one, and Dr. Hinsdale nailed it up 
while the girls sang : 

‘^Here’s to Betty Wales & Co. ! 

Drink ^em down ! 

Here^s to Betty Wales & Co. 

Drink ^em down ! 

Kerens to Betty Wales & Co. 

They’ll be sure to make things go ! 

Drink ’em down, 

Drink ’em down, 

Drink ’em down, down, down ! ” 

Betty, standing with Georgians arm around 
her, gave a little shiver. 

^‘What's the trouble? Are you catching 
cold ? whispered Georgia anxiously. 

No, nothing,^^ Betty whispered back. 
Well, there wasn’t — anything at least that 
you told people, except perhaps Miss Ferris, 
who had been kept from the private view by 
an important department meeting. It was 
only what K. had once laughingly dubbed 
‘‘growing pains,” — the same frightened feeling 
that you had the first time your brother teased 
you to swim out over your depth, and you 
weren’t a bit sure he could rescue you if you 


96 BEirr WALES & CO. 

went down. Also, it had taken Betty the 
whole long afternoon to clean and fill the 
carriage lamps that every one was exclaiming 
over. Cleaning lamps didn^t come under 
the head of either waiting on table or cook- 
ing. Betty wondered, with a tired little sigh, 
who would do it all the other days. 


CHAPTER VI 


EUGENIA ford’s LUNCHEON 

The success of the Tally-ho Tea-Shop’s 
opening day left the amazed proprietors some- 
what aghast. When Babbie Hildreth arrived 
at twelve, in a plumed hat and a trained 
gown, and with a lunch party of six in tow, 
things were already at such a pass that after a 
whispered word with Betty she shoved her 
guests hastily into the one empty stall, pinned 
up her train, tucked her plumed hat under 
one of the benches, and proceeded to take 
Betty’s place as cashier, so that Betty could go 
to the rescue of her well-nigh distracted cook. 
At twelve-fifteen Madeline ^propriated Polly 
Eastman’s runabout and drove at a gallop to 
the Hinsdales’ to borrow Mary’s waitress and 
a fresh supply of linen and silver. At twelve- 
thirty Georgia Ames appeared, very hot and 
hungry from a strenuous game of tennis, only 
to be mercilessly seized upon by Babbie and 
rushed off for more oranges and bananas. 

97 


98 BETTT WALES & CO. 

‘‘ They cry for fruit salad like children for 
castoria,” declared Babbie fiercely. And 
they have nothing but five dollar bills. 
Bring me all the change you can carry.’^ 

At one o^clock the real rush began. Girls 
sat on the broad steps or swarmed over the 
lawn waiting for vacant tables. At half-past 
one Madeline went out to them and explained 
that nearly everything was gone, except tea 
and bread-and-butter sandwiches ; and some 
of the girls went off, after having engaged 
tables for next day. At half-past five, when 
the last of the afternoon tea drinkers had de- 
parted, the managers of the Tally-ho Tea-Shop 
held a solemn conclave in the front stall, 
their aching feet tucked comfortably under 
them on the long benches. 

It was a fright,^^ said Babbie. ** I took 
three hundred checks, and money enough to 
pay the rent till Christmas. I hope I made 
right change some of the time.” 

It's great,” sighed Madeline, “ simply 
great I There’ll be perfectly huge profits for 
Mrs. Hildreth and Mrs. Bob and me.” 

If this is going to keep up,” put in Betty, 
‘‘ we’ve got to have more of every single 


BETTT WALES & CO. 99 

thing. I’m afraid we’ve killed off Bridget 
already.” 

Send her home in a carriage,” suggested 
Madeline recklessly. “ Let’s all go home in 
a carriage. Speaking of home, I’ve got to 
take the sleeper down to-night. Poor Mrs. 
Bob has telegraphed twice. You see I told 
her to advertise the apartment, and the 
would-be tenants are standing on the door- 
steps shrieking to get in. I’ll be back here 
the first minute I can, though.” 

Betty looked at Babbie. Didn’t you say 
your mother had changed her plans and come 
home?” 

Babbie nodded. “ I’ve got to fiy back to 
her or she’ll get blue and rush me off to Palm 
Beach for the whole winter. You’ll be all 
right without us, Betty. You must have all 
the extra help you want, and if we’re going 
to do such a tremendous business I think you 
ought to have more salary.” 

So do I,” chorused Madeline, which is 
very sweet of me, considering how it will wipe 
out profits.” 

We’d better wait and see whether this rush 
keeps up,” advised Betty wisely. ‘‘ Maybe 


loo BETTT WALES & CO. 


those that came to-day didn't like it and 
won’t come again.” 

Everybody was perfectly crazy over it,” 
declared Madeline. “ I’m sure it’s all plain 
sailing, now that we’ve got started.” 

Betty, tucking a complicated marketing 
list into her shopping-bag with a still more 
complicated memoranda of “ things to be at- 
tended to,” said nothing. She wasn’t afraid 
of hard work, but the responsibility and the 
thought that perhaps she couldn’t possibly get 
through it all worried her a good deal. She 
could have hugged Georgia Ames next 
morning, when that brisk young person, 
having banged persistently on the tea- 
shop door, finally climbed in the kitchen 
window. 

Found you. a room,” she announced 
breathlessly, “ in that little white house in 
front. Woman has a big beauty left over, 
and you can have it cheap, because it’s so late 
in the season. With or without meals. Heard 
you say you wanted one. Now send me on 
more errands. I’ve got a free morning — no 
classes till twelve, and then only a snap course 
in psychology. What? You silly ! As if I 


BErrr wales & co. loi 


wouldn't do anything for you after the way 
you treated me last year." 

It was Georgia who suggested applying to 
the Students' Aid for more waitresses and who, 
when the Students' Aid insisted that it couldn't 
be expected to provide them on less than a 
day's notice, sought out the spendthrift Dutton 
twins and pressed them into Betty's service. 

“ They're always poor after the second of 
the month, aren't you, my children ? " she 
asked them, as they presented themselves in 
two of Nora's aprons, flushed and giggling, 
for Betty's inspection. Your hair is in a 
mess, as usual. Fluffy. Remember, Straight, 
your right hand is the one you take notes 
with — if you ever do take notes. Now run 
out to the kitchen, and Bridget and Nora will 
show you where things are. And remember 
it's only a lark to you, but you mustn't queer 
the Tally-ho Tea-Shop." 

These instructions they faithfully obeyed, 
seeking out Betty later to tell her so. 

And we think we ought to have our lunch 
extra," the fluffy-haired twin explained, be- 
cause all our little pals came in to see us do 
our stunt." 


102 BETTT WALES & CO, 


And we egged them on to have all sorts 
of expensive things, more than they’d meant 
to order,” added her straight-haired sister. 

Besides, we want to save our wages for 
lucky pieces.” 

But while they were eating the lunch that 
was extra,” Lucile Merrifield came in, and 
being noisily invited to join them, ate up the 
lucky pieces and much more, while she lis- 
tened to the twins’ joyous account of their new 
stunt.” So the lunch wasn’t exactly extra 
after all,” said the fluffy-haired twin as she 
paid the bill, because we egged Lucile on 
too. Extravagance is a good quality in a 
waitress, isn’t it. Miss Wales? I shall write 
my father that. It may tickle him so that 
he’ll raise our allowance, and if he does we’ll 
be right down here giving a party.” 

After the first fortnight things began to 
settle themselves into a more businesslike 
routine. The girls Betty knew, having reck- 
lessly indulged themselves during the tea- 
shop’s first week, were obliged to be content 
with campus fare for a while. One noon she 
realized with a little start of amazement that 
there wasn’t a girl that she knew in the room. 


BETTT WALES & CO, 103 

Some of them doubtless knew her. Most of 
them had probably heard that she was a 
Harding girl, who was suddenly obliged to 
earn her living. Well, wasn’t she? And 
hadn’t she wanted to go into a really and 
truly business, and been almost sorry that in 
Harding everything was too much fun to 
seem like real work ? 

We’ve been waiting a perfect age,” an- 
nounced somebody over her shoulder. Will 
you send a waitress, please, right away ? You 
ought to give good service, you know, when 
you’re just starting in.” 

The speaker was a tall, overdressed girl, 
with a scowl and a mouth that drooped at the 
corners. Betty remembered distinctly having 
seen her come in only a minute before. But 
she said, “ I’m sorry,” and took the order out 
to the kitchen herself. 

When Bridget had served it in a hurry, 
Betty heard the tall girl laugh disagreeably. 
“Wasn’t that neat?” she demanded of her 
companion. “ I can always get what I want. 
Maybe she did see us come in ; she couldn’t 
say so. That’s the way to treat tradespeople, 
even if they have been to college.” 


104 BETTT WALES & CO, 

That very afternoon, while the tall girl’s 
speech still rankled in Betty’s memory, re- 
calling other petty slights and snubs, Miss 
Eugenia Ford rustled in to order a luncheon 
for twelve for the next noon. 

Eugenia Ford was small and fair, and as 
exquisitely dainty and delicate as a French 
doll. She was universally conceded to be the 
prettiest girl in the entering class, and the 
petting she had received had gone to her head. 

“ If her grandmother dies before long, she 
may get a little real expression into her face, 
and then she’ll be the college beauty,” some- 
body had said about her. 

It will take heaps more than losing her 
grandmother to put any expression into Eu- 
genia’s face,” Georgia Ames had retorted wisely. 

At present Eugenia was certainly as vain 
and frivolous as she was pretty, and very 
badly spoiled indeed. 

“ Good-afternoon, Miss — Miss Welch,” she 
began in businesslike tones. 

'' Wales,” suggested Betty, smiling at the 
child because she was so pretty, and because 
she had been so comical about gargles and 
gargoyles at Georgia’s party. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 105 

“ Wales/^ Eugenia accepted the correction 
gravely. I want a table for twelve persons 
to-morrow, for a one o’clock luncheon. This 
is the menu that I want served. I shall have 
my flowers sent here, and I suppose you can 
arrange them. Here are my place-cards, and 
this list gives the order that I want them ar- 
ranged in. I want the front stall.” Eugenia 
completed her directions without relaxing one 
iota of her unsmiling dignity. 

** I’m sorry,” Betty told her, but the front 
stall is engaged for to-morrow. You can have 
the third — that’s just as large — or the big 
round table out here.” 

But I like the candle-shades in the first 
stall better,” announced Eugenia calmly. 

Change them to the third, and give me 
that. And please serve us very promptly, 
because some of the girls have afternoon en- 
gagements.” And Eugenia started off. 

I’m sorry. Miss Ford,” Betty called after 
her, “ but the girl who engaged the first 
stall particularly wanted those candle-shades. 
They are understood to belong to the stall, 
you know.” 

Eugenia’s smooth white forehead puckered 


io6 BETTT TVALES & CO. 


itself into a disagreeable frown. “ Very 
well,” she said crossly, “ but you ought to 
have two sets of that kind of shade. Theyhe 
the only pretty ones in the place.” And she 
rustled off, annoyance in every line of her 
dainty little figure. 

Betty smiled sadly after her. I suppose 
she’s forgotten that she ever met me. Fresh- 
men have so many people to remember. 
Madeline will be pleased to know her opinion 
of all those candle-shades that she’s so proud 
of.” 

Betty arranged Eugenia’s roses herself, and 
inspected every detail of the table with great 
care. Last of all she put around the place- 
cards in the order that Eugenia had specified. 
Georgia’s name was on one, and Lucile’s, and 
Polly’s, and the flulfy-haired Dutton twins’ — 
the one who wrote such cunning verses and 
was sure to go into Dramatic Club the first 
time. It was plainly what Katherine used to 
call a polite, politic ” luncheon. 

Unfortunately for Eugenia she was late in 
arriving — or her guests were early. When 
she hurried in, looking prettier than ever be- 
cause her cheeks were flushed with her quick 


BETTT WALES & CO. 107 

walk down the hill and her eyes sparkling in 
anticipation of a triumphant occasion, she 
found Georgia, Polly, Lucile, and the Dutton 
twins all hanging over Betty^s desk, so ab- 
sorbed in their conversation that they en- 
tirely failed to notice the advent of their 
small hostess. 

“ Oh, here you are,’’ began Eugenia, with a 
vague little nod toward the group. Shall 
we go and sit down while we wait for the 
others? Our table is all ready, I think.” 

Come on, Betty, and give us the rest of it 
while we’re waiting,” coaxed Lucile, pulling 
Betty toward Eugenia. “ She’s been telling 
us how Babe the man-hater fell in love. It’s 
a joyous tale. You met Babe, Eugenia, when 
she was up this fall — and you’ve met Betty 
Wales, of course.” 

Eugenia looked gravely at Betty. Yes, I 
believe I’ve met Miss Wales,” she said. 

Of course, at my gargoyle party,” put in 
Georgia. “ Go on, Betty, about that fascina- 
ting Paris pension, and their rubbering out 
into the garden and planning to have break- 
fast together every morning.” 

Betty, watching Eugenia, shook her head, 


io8 BETTT WALES & CO. 


with a brave little smile. ** Some other time. 
I'm busy now. That is, I can’t desert my 
post to play with you, as I’ve told you all 
sixty times before.” 

“ Shall we go and sit down ? ” asked 
Eugenia again, sweetly. And as they filed 
off, her clear high voice came back distinctly 
to Betty. I didn’t ask her to come,” she 
was explaining to Georgia, ** because I think 
it’s much better not to mix business and so- 
ciety, don’t you. Miss Ames ? Of course if I 
saw her up on the campus I should be nice to 
her. But here it’s rather awkward, because 
some of my friends would think it was awfully 
funny to be introduced to the cashier.” 

Betty couldn’t hear Georgia’s low, emphatic 
retort, but she could guess at its tenor, and 
later, when Polly Eastman leaned around the 
edge of the stall, wearing her widest, most 
provoking smile, and waved her handker- 
chief, she could imagine how she and Lucile 
and the Dutton twins were making poor 
Eugenia’s life a burden to her by those subtle 
methods of persecution that had won the trio 
their reputation for being the best friends and 
the worst enemies that a Harding girl could 


BETTT WALES & CO. 109 

have. It was four to one, and Betty pitied 
poor Eugenia, who felt the hostile atmosphere 
— without in the least understanding what it 
meant, and spent the afternoon writing a 
tearful letter to her boarding-school chum, 
all about the hatefulness of Harding upper- 
class girls who were “ too sweet for any- 
thing one minute and perfectly horrid 
the next. She thought she would leave at 
Christmas time, she wrote, even if her father 
had said she couldn’t keep changing her 
mind. Then she made out a check to the 
Tally-ho Tea-Shop for her luncheon and 
mailed it, with a disagreeable little note, 
complaining of the waitress’s awkwardness 
and too much pepper in the soup. “ The 
table wasn’t decently laid, either, and the 
flowers were a mess,” she concluded, and ad- 
dressed the note to Miss Welch.” 

That’s what Georgia Ames gets back for 
calling me an idiotic little snob,” muttered 
Eugenia, as she posted her letters. 

Eugenia’s note, which Betty couldn’t And 
time to read until late the next afternoon, 
was the last straw in the load of a very hard 
day. The week before, business had been so 


no BETTY WALES & CO. 


dull that Betty had reluctantly decided to dis- 
pense with two of the Students' Aid 
waitresses, and, having tried to choose the 
ones who could best do without the money, 
she had screwed up her courage and ex- 
plained the situation. They had both cried, 
and now, the very day after they were gone, 
the Tally-ho Tea-Shop was crowded to over- 
flowing, and poor Nora and her one remain- 
ing assistant fairly ran back and forth be- 
tween the kitchen and the stalls in their 
efforts not to keep impatient customers wait- 
ing. Then everybody had been seized with a 
mad desire for English muffins just on the 
very day when Bridget had decided only to 
make up a few, and the sandwiches that there 
never had been enough of before were all left 
over. Several people had complained that 
they could never get what they ordered, and 
some had gone away. Betty stood it until 
flve o'clock, and then, conflding to the 
Students' Aid waitress that she felt as if she 
should fly, she left her in charge and went up 
to see Miss Ferris. 

'' What's the trouble now, little girl ? " de- 
manded Miss Ferris, when she had established 


BETTT WALES & CO. 


1 1 1 


Betty in a big easy chair by the open fire, 
with a box of chocolates at her elbow. 

Nothing,^' said Betty bravely, or at least 
there oughtn’t to be anything. What would 
you do. Miss Ferris, if things that you knew 
oughtn’t to bother you, bothered you awfully 
all the same ? ” 

Miss Ferris considered. Anybody else 
would have said, “ What things, for in- 
stance ? ” but Miss Ferris never asked stupid 
questions like that. She only smiled back at 
you and read what she wanted to know in 
your face. 

Well,” she began slowly after a minute, 

I’d go to bed very early, so as to get well 
rested, and next morning I’d look around to 
find somebody with a big, real trouble that I 
could help, perhaps — or try to help anyhow. 
And first of all I’d take off my hat and stay 
to dinner at the Hilton.” 

When Betty bid Miss Ferris good-night 
after a merry evening in the Hilton House 
parlors, she was her smiling self again. 

“ I’m all right even without the going-to- 
bed-early part,” she declared eagerly. The 
things I can’t help I won’t worry about. The 


II2 BETTT WALES & CO. 


things I oughtn’t to mind I won’t mind — not 
one little speck. I guess that disposes of all 
my troubles, and the first thing to-morrow 
I’ll begin hunting for somebody to help. I 
don’t believe I’ve thought much about help- 
ing lately — except helping father by earning 

this money. Things are so different ” 

No, they’re not,” Miss Ferris cut her 
short, because you’re the very same Betty 
Wales.” 

‘‘Am I?” Betty wondered, as she but- 
toned the coat of her last year’s suit and ran 
down the hill. “ I suppose I am. Now 
there’s Rachel — she couldn’t be any dearer if 
she owned a gold mine. Besides, I promised 
father I wouldn’t care and I won’t.” 


CHAPTER VII 


MAEY, THE PERFECT PATRON 

Madeline had been gone for three weeks 
and never sent so much as a line of “ inspira- 
tions ” back to the Tally-ho Tea-Shop, when 
the expressman drove up one morning with a 
great mahogany writing-desk for Betty, with 
Sent by M. Ayres on the shipping ticket. 
On one of the lovely old-fashioned brass 
knobs was tied a note, and Betty stopped un- 
packing the desk to read it. 

The chief joy of having a tea-shop,^^ 
Madeline wrote, “ is that it grows on your 
hands. I never was quite satisfied with your 
desk. A harness cupboard, Avith a covered 
watering trough underneath it, ought to have 
made a picturesque and Tally-ho-ish effect, 
but some way it didn’t. Yesterday I Avent 
out into the country to meditate on my 
Literary Career, and at the little old inn 
Avhere I lunched I saw the very thing, Avhich 
I enclose hereAvith. (That’s Avhat I say to all 
113 


II4 BETTT WALES & CO. 

the editors about my stories. I hope youll 
like the enclosure well enough to keep it, 
which is a thing no editor has done yet.) 

** Isn't the inlay lovely, and don’t you adore 
the bulgy little compartments ? There’s also 
a secret drawer — not the fake kind that any- 
body can open after a little hunting, but the 
real thing. I got all these fascinating features 
for a song, with the recipe for the most luscious 
cake thrown in — literally thrown in. Miss 
Betty Wales. Open the secret drawer, and 
you’ll find it. (Ha I ha I A lively hunt you’ll 
have first.) It’s called Aunt Martha’s cake, 
and if it doesn’t make a hit for the Tally-ho, 
I shall lose faith in the Harding appetite. 

** Now don’t look solemn and sigh over the 
wild extravagance of all good Bohemians, 
Betty dear. If you feel that the Tally-ho 
can’t afford the desk just now, why, Mrs. Bob 
Enderby is crazy about it, and she’ll give the 
firm exactly twice what I paid. Get little 
Mary Brooks to bidding against her, and we 
shan’t have to worry over dull times. 

'' I am sending this with the desk, because 
my Literary Career takes all the postage stamps 
I can afford, — and then some. Dick Blake 


BETTT WALES & CO, 115 

says that writing is exactly like painting. 
You've got to learn how. He calls my stories 
‘ beginner's daubs — promising, but daubs.' 
I've talked to a lot of other discouraging peo- 
ple, and I've got hundreds of plans, and 
several inspirations for B. W. & Co., so I'm 
coming back to-morrow to settle down for 
what Katherine calls a little spell of work." 

Goodness, but I shall be glad to see her 
and talk things over I " Betty said to herself, 
and looked up to find Mary Brooks standing 
in the door, smiling in her vague, near-sighted 
fashion. 

** Oh, it is you," she said, as Betty hurried 
to meet her. ^^Are you all by yourself? 
Where are the members of the ‘ Why-Get-Up- 
to-Breakfast Club ' ? " 

Betty laughed and then looked sober. ** It's 
almost as nice a name as the ^ Merry Hearts,' 
isn't it ? They've stopped coming here lately. 
I wish I knew why." 

Give them buckwheat griddle-cakes," ad- 
vised Mary promptly. '' Cuyler has nothing 
but wheat ones. Tell Lucile to tell everybody 
that yours are heaps nicer. What's that in the 
crate ? " 


ii6 BETTY WALES & CO. 


Betty explained, and Mary, who adored old 
writing-desks and had been hunting for years 
for one just to her liking, pulled off her gloves 
in great excitement and helped unpack the 
desk, move it into a sunny alcove between the 
front door and a window, and hunt for the 
secret drawer. 

It’s exactly what I want,” she declared 
rapturously, after they had spent half an hour 
without finding any trace of the recipe for 
Aunt Martha’s cake. “ I’ll give you ten dol- 
lars more than your Mrs. Bob offered. But 
you mustn’t sell it to either of us, Betty. A 
secret drawer is a splendid tea-room feature. 
It suggests all kinds of romantic mysteries.” 

Betty nodded. “Of course, I should just 
love to have it here, but we can’t afford it. 
We haven’t done a bit well lately, Mary.” 

“ Try the buckwheat griddle-cakes,” Mary 
called over her shoulder, as she hurried off to 
meet her husband at the end of his eleven 
o’clock class. 

But directly after luncheon she was back 
again. “ I’m bound to find that drawer be- 
fore Madeline comes, so we can crow over her,” 
she explained. “ Besides, George Garrison 



SHE STOPPED THP: GIRLS AS THEY WPINT OUT 




BETTT WALES & CO. 117 

Hinsdale is writing a paper for a philosophical 
society with a name a yard long, and he’s most 
dreadfully cross. So I thought that as I can’t 
help talking and looking frivolous, I’d better 
go away. Shall I bother here ? ” 

Mary hunted for the secret drawer in the 
same sociable fashion in which she evidently 
expected Dr. Hinsdale to write a paper for his 
learned society. She stopped the girls as they 
went out, to ask if they knew anything about 
secret springs, and she soon had an animated, 
admiring group around her, eagerly examin- 
ing the points of Betty’s treasure, and in- 
cidentally revealing to the astute Mary their 
opinions of the Tally-ho Tea-Shop and drink- 
ing in her casual references to delicious crispy 
brown buckwheat griddle-cakes and to the 
wonderful new recipe in the desk, that would 
certainly come to light before long. 

About four o’clock, in the lull between 
lunch and afternoon tea, Mary detached her- 
self from the girls around the de&k and but- 
tonholed Betty in a secluded corner. 

I always knew I had a head for business,” 
she began modestly. “ The reason they don’t 
come in to feed isn’t because they don’t like 


ii8 BETTT WALES & CO. 


the eats, but because they^re saving up money 
for Christmas. Don't you remember how we 
used to do that? At least," added Mary, 
with a reminiscent smile, ** I used to mean to 
save, but in the end I always sent home for an 
extra check." 

I know," agreed Betty. “ But what can 
you do about it? It's just one of the draw- 
backs of the tea-room business, isn't it ? " 
Mary surveyed her smilingly. Don't you 
really see what to do ? " she inquired impress- 
ively. “ Why, my child, it's as plain as two 
and two. Open a gift-shop department, of 
course." Mary paused for the full splendor 
of her idea to dawn upon Betty. 

But — but this is a tea-room," began Betty 
doubtfully. 

Of course it is," Mary took her up, and 
if people won't buy enough tea, you have to 
give them griddle-cakes, don't you ? And if 
they don't jump at griddle-cakes, you've got 
to find out what they will jump at. That's 
business. What you want is their money. 
You've got plenty of room for a long table of 
fol-de-rols over there in the corner. They'll 
hear about it and come in to buy Christmas 


BETTT WALES & CO. 119 

presents, and they^ll see Aunt Martha’s cake 
melting in their friends’ mouths and have to 
have some. While they’re eating, they’ll re- 
member that they haven’t bought a thing for 
their own dear Aunt Martha. So they’ll hop 
up and pick out more Christmas things. See ? 
That’s Association of Ideas, my child. George 
Garrison Hinsdale is writing his paper about 
it. I’m going home this minute to tell him 
that I know how it works, and also to give 
him his tea, which is an idea that he associates 
with me. I’ll be in to-morrow, to see if you’ve 
found the drawer.” 

The more Betty thought of the gift-shop 
department the better she liked the idea. 
They could make a specialty of Tally-ho can- 
dle-shades and one or two other things that 
Madeline could be trusted to think up. The 
Students’ Aid girls that she had been obliged 
to dismiss could take charge of the table — “ I 
shan’t have it look a bit like a counter,” Betty 
reflected, remembering the unpleasant remark 
about tradespeople — during her own busi- 
est hours. Some of the other girls who were 
earning their own way might like to put work 
on sale there. 


120 BEITT WALES & CO. 


Pretty things would surely sell better 
here than from the bulletin-board in the 
gym,” Betty decided swiftly, and that^s a 
way to help. We might take orders for 
mending and copying and such things, too. 
The girls who come here are the very ones 
who have money to spend, and I’m sure lots 
of them don’t bother to hunt up Students’ Aid 
girls, when they want work done. Why, this 
is more helpful than I ever could be when I 
was in college ! Miss Ferris was right — she 
always is. We’ll do it ! I must consult Bab- 
bie and Madeline first, of course.” 

But Mary, appearing bright and early the 
next morning, scoffed at delays. 

“ George Garrison Hinsdale looked as if he 
wanted to put me in storage till lunch time,” 
she explained, “ so I can ^ work fogprj^pu the 
whole morning if you’ll only decide h^. 
Anyway, we know Madeline is for it. *I)t)u’t 
you remember she said in her letter that she 
liked tea-rooms because they grow on your 
hands ? Well, this is a beautiful example of 
growth. And you and Madeline are a ma- 
jority, though I’m sure Babbie will be for it 
too. Now I’ve thought of a lovely new kind 


BETTT WALES & CO. 121 


of Tally-ho candle-shade with little bunches 
of oats for fringe. I’m going to fix up a 
workroom for the gift-shop department in 
the loft. I’ve brought down oceans of things 
in here,” and Mary emptied paste, paints and 
brushes, scissors, a sewing kit, and a miscel- 
laneous collection of scraps of paper, which 
she explained were designs for Christmas 
cards, out of a very stylish shopping-bag, bor- 
rowed Betty’s biggest apron, and proceeded to 
improvise a worli-table out of two sawhorses 
and an old storm door. But having laid out 
her implements on it, she discovered to her 
dismay that the workroom would be plainly 
visible to the inmates of the third stall, and 
she came down to consult Betty about the 
most artistic color for a curtain to screen her 
from the curious public below. 

For this gift business is to be a secret, you 
know,” she explained to Betty, “ until you’re 
ready to spring it on them. Not exactly a 
dead secret, but the interesting half-way kind. 
Madeline knows how to manage secrets. And 
speaking of Madeline, here she comes.” 

Madeline approved the new departure so 
vehemently that she would hardly wait to 


122 BETTT WALES & CO, 


shake hands before she was up in the loft in- 
vestigating Mary’s arrangements, and empty- 
ing the miscellaneous contents of her suit-case 
out on the floor, to find a spook ” candle- 
shade, that the little artist, whose cousins had 
once had a tea-room, had designed for the 
new adventurers in the same field. When 
you examined it, you saw just a confused 
mass of red, blue, green, yellow, and white 
spots separated by broad black lines ; but with 
the light behind them the spots resolved them- 
selves in a big yellow Tally-ho coach drawn 
by white horses, who pranced grandly up to 
a red-roofed inn on the next panel, with a 
green lawn in front of it and green trees and 
blue sky behind. 

Isn’t it too cute?” Betty declared enthu- 
siastically. ** It ought to be our very special- 
est specialty, oughtn’t it, Mary ? ” 

I suppose so,” agreed Mary grudgingly. 

They’ll take loads of time to make, though. 
There’ll be more real profit in mine. I must 
get some oats for my kind, while I’m out buy- 
ing the curtain. Why, it’s noon already — I 
must fly I Madeline, come down and show us 
the secret drawer before I go.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 123 

Madeline had appropriated a piece of Mary^s 
cardboard and was tracing the design of the 
specialest specialty on it. 

She shook her head absently. It^s a trade 
secret, only for members of the firm. Per- 
haps, if you don’t call me ^ my child ’ too 
often, and make us some terribly cute shades 
and cards, we’ll let you into it by and by.” 

You ought to let her in right away,” de- 
clared Betty loyally. “ I was getting just 
dreadfully blue, with you and Babbie away, 
and first she thought of buckwheat griddle- 
cakes and then of this.” 

Yes, I’m the very Perfect Patron,” Mary 
chimed in eagerly, “ and I ask you where any 
business would be without patrons ? They’re 
as necessary as the firm, if not more so.’* 

Madeline stopped work to smile benignly 
at her. “ Mary, the Perfect Patron,” she re- 
peated, your logic is irresistible. Your dis- 
tinguished husband ought to be very proud 
of you. I’ll tell you what, Betty, I’ll make 
out a set of Rules for the Perfect Patron, and 
if Mary agrees to abide by them she shall be 
duly initiated with the rite of the Secret 
Drawer.” 


124 bettt wales & CO, 

“ I agree to anything, if you^l only show 
me that drawer right ofF,^^ begged Mary. 

But Madeline was inexorable. It is the 
present duty of the committee on Inspirations 
to see if it can copy this candle-shade,” she 
said. “ And I may add that it is the duty of 
the Perfect Wife to be on time for meals. 

And the moral of that is ” 

Goodness gracious ! ” supplied Mary, who 
had been consulting a diminutive watch, and 
now rushed down the stairs murmuring sadly. 
It must be fast, but I thought it was slow 
this morning.” 

** I^m not at all sure that I can find that 
drawer again, myself,” Madeline confided to 
Betty, when they were alone. “ IPs an aw- 
fully complicated arrangement.” 

But that night just before they closed the 
tea-room, Madeline found the combination, 
after a little preliminary fumbling, and 
proudly entrusted to Betty the much-vaunted 
recipe for Aunt Martha’s cake. 

Let’s see.” She went over the formula. 
First you press a spring that opens this 
panel. Then you pull out that drawer. 
There’s a second spring back of that, and a 


BETTT WALES & CO, 


125 


false bottom that comes up, and then a spring 
to open the secret drawer. I shan^t forget it 
again. The woman who sold the desk to me 
said she thought there was some way of work- 
ing the whole combination at once, but I donT 
believe there can be.’’ 

“ We mustn’t put anything in there if you’re 
ever going away again,” Betty declared, “ for 
I never could get it out, unless you write 
down the rules for me.” 

Madeline shook her head vigorously. 

Don’t you see, dearie, that the whole idea 
of a secret drawer is not to have the rules 
written down where anybody can get at 
them? Sometimes things get lost in secret 
drawers for a generation or two, and it’s so 
lovely having your grandfather’s will or your 
great-aunt’s love-letters, or your wicked uncle’s 
confession of a murder he committed, tumble 
out some day unexpectedly, just because you 
touched a spring that you didn’t even know 
was in existence. But the rules for the Per- 
fect Patron are a different matter. I shall 
devote my evening to composing them.” 
Madeline sighed deeply. I suppose I ought 
to devote it to my Literary Career. I simply 


126 BETTT WALES & CO. 


mustn’t neglect that, Betty, even to make 
extra-special Tally-ho candle-shades.” She 
sighed again. The trouble with a Literary 
Career is that you work on it for ages, and 
you’ve got nothing to show for your trouble 
but a story that ten editors have turned down. 
Whereas a candle-shade is a candle-shade, and 
a Rule for a Perfect Patron is sure to be 
amusing at least to yourself. Let’s see — 
^ First Rule for the Perfect Patron : Don’t 
act patronizing to the Firm ; confine 
your patronage to the menu.’ How’s that, 
Betty?” 

“ Lovely ! ” declared Betty with enthusiasm. 

Only Mary never can do it. She loves to 
call us my children.” 

** That’s the point of the rule,” explained 
Madeline sagely. “ Little Mary has got to 
work hard before we initiate her into the rite 
of the Secret Drawer. If I can think up 
enough joyous impossibilities for rules we 
might organize a Perfect Patrons’ Society, 
limited to six members.” Madeline threw 
aside her pencil and paper and curled up 
comfortably on Betty’s couch. I foresee,” 
she announced blandly, ''that the secret 


BETTT WALES & CO. 127 

drawer is going to be our prize feature. 
First rule for tea-rooms: Take care of the 
features, and the patrons will take care of 
you.^' 


CHAPTER VIII 


YOUNG-MAN-OVER-THE-FENCE 

The only trouble with the gift-shop depart- 
ment was that it went too well. When 
Madeline and Mary had each made a dozen 
candle-shades and Betty had decorated some 
cards and blotters and secured a few pretty 
samples from needy undergraduates, Madeline 
painted a “ postscript sign to hang like a 
pendant from the big one in the gargoyle^s 
mouth, and tacked a gay poster, announcing 
the Tally-ho’s new departure, on to the barn 
door. By five o’clock that night all the 
shades, except those reserved for samples, and 
nearly all the cards were sold, and there was 
an order list for the extra special ” shades 
that Madeline declared would be the utter 
ruin of her Literary Career. The workshop 
in the loft fairly hummed with activity. 
Mary Brooks was its presiding genius. Dr. 
Hinsdale continued to work on his learned 
paper, so it was a mercy, Mary said, waving 
aside Betty’s thanks, that she had something 
128 


BETTT WALES & CO, 129 

to work on too. Every morning and nearly 
every afternoon she fluttered in, to see how 
things were getting on. 

“ I’ve thought up a splendid idea,” she 
would call, as she climbed the stairs. 

Or, Dreamed a scrumptious rhyme in the 
night, Madeline, for the cards with the half 
wreaths on them.” 

Or, I’ve heard of a girl who makes the 
loveliest stenciled things. Will she be re- 
liable about filling orders ? How in the world 
should I know about that, Betty Wales?” 

That was Betty’s part — to make the under- 
graduates fill orders according to their agree- 
ments, to keep accounts for them and for 
Madeline and her assistants, to sift Mary’s 
splendid ideas,” discarding the imprac- 
tical and arranging to have the useful ones 
carried out, to spur on Madeline’s en- 
thusiasm, and to help, whenever she could 
find a spare moment, with the actual work of 
making the pretty novelties for sale. 

Let’s stop. We’ve earned lots of money 
now, and I’m tired to death of cutting queer- 
shaped holes in cardboard,” Madeline would 
complain at least once every day. 


130 BETTT WALES & CO. 

That wouldnT be business/^ Betty insisted 
firmly. “ It isn’t but three weeks now before 
Christmas, and then we shall have to stop for 
a while at least. I’ll hire some girls to make 
the shades and you can show them how and 
then do cards for a while. No, think up 
some perfectly new thing. The new things 
take best.” Betty tactfully didn’t add ^‘and 
keep you interested and at work best.” 

But I’ve got an idea for a story,” Madeline 
would grumble. 

Can’t it wait? Think of all the stamps 
you can buy with this money,” Betty sug- 
gested craftily. 

‘‘ I’m getting to be dreadfully diplomatic,” 
she confided to Mary Brooks. I used to 
hate the girls who were like that — Jean East- 
man and her crowd. But now I scheme in 
all kinds of ways to get Madeline to do as I 
wish, and to keep Bridget good-natured, and 
make the customers think they’d a lot rather 
have English muffins, if the sandwiches are 
all gone.” 

You are developing a hard case of execu- 
tive ability, my child,” Mary told her. ‘‘ It’s 
perfectly comical, because you look so young 


BETTT WALES & CO. 131 

and innocent with all that curly hair. By 
the way, Betty, hasn't Bridget a recipe for 
cookies that you can christen * Cousin Kate's ' ? 
I've been talking to ever so many girls about 
their relatives, and it seems as if they all had 
a Cousin Kate. And then by association of 
ideas, you see, they'd buy more presents." 

Hasn't Dr. Hinsdale finished his paper ? " 
laughed Betty. “ Because if he has you 
mustn't bother too much about us, Mary. 
You've helped us now more than we can ever 
thank you for. You certainly ought to take 
the money for your candle-shades." 

Remember you three girls made me 
famous as a hostess, through the length and 
breadth of Harding," Mary told her. I've 
got to even up for that. An.d Madeline has 
half promised that if I'm a very Perfect 
Patron indeed till Christmas she'll show me 
the secret drawer. I think I’ll go up and make 
her promise me fair and square before I go to 
work on this new order-list.” 

It was rather early for afternoon tea 
drinkers, but Betty didn't like to follow 
Mary and leave the tea-room alone; and 
Nora was busy in the kitchen helping Bridget 


132 BETTT WALES & CO. 

to transform chicken salad left over from 
lunch into ‘^our special tea-sandwiches/^ So 
she sat down at her desk and was soon so 
deep in the auditing of her weekly accounts 
that she didn’t hear the door open, nor see a 
tall young man stop just inside to look around 
the room with an appreciative smile and then 
cross hesitatingly to her desk, his smile grow- 
ing broader as he found himself still un- 
noticed. 

Is there a sign anywhere : * No men 

allowed within ’ ? ” he asked, finally. 

Betty looked up with a little gasp of sur- 
prise, and the tall young man bowed to her 
over the desk, still smiling reassuringly. 

Oh, no, there isn’t any sign of that kind,” 
Betty explained hastily. “ The one on the 
door is about our new gift-shop department. 
The snow-storm last night washed it almost 
out, and we haven’t had time yet to make a 
new one. I suppose I might at least take it 
down.” Betty started toward the door, but 
the tall young man barred her way. 

** Let me take it down for you,” he sug- 
gested, while you get me some tea. Because 
if there isn’t any sign — but perhaps you just 


BETTT WALES & CO. 133 

depend on the general understanding that 
seems to pervade this manless town/^ 

“Oh, no,'' Betty assured him hospitably. 
“ We're very glad to have men come here. 
They often do — or at least," she added truth- 
fully, “ several have since we opened." 

“ That's good," said the young man gaily. 
“ All right then, since I may stay, I should 
like a pot of tea — a very big pot, please, wHh 
lots of hot water, and lots of cream, and lots 
of crackers spread very thick with strawberry 
jam. Now I'll pull down the sign while 
you're getting the tea." 

“ Very well," said Betty demurely. “ Which 
table do you prefer ? " 

“ This," said the young man promptly, 
pointing to the small one in the alcove, close 
to Betty's desk. 

When she came back after having left his 
order with Nora, he was pacing up and down 
the room, examining the old brasses with in- 
terest, peering into each stall and nodding 
approvingly as he whirled the double-decker 
bread-trays, patted the fat mustard jars, and 
inspected all the different varieties of candle- 
shades. 


134 BETTT WALES & CO. 

** I say/^ he began, when he saw Betty, “ if 
you put in those nails on the door, you did a 
very good job. I can^t get them out. Have 
you a hammer ? 

It was zero weather outside, and the young 
man had no overcoat. When he came in 
again with the remains of the poster under 
his arm, he was shivering with the cold. 
Betty, who was sure that he was a gentleman, 
even if he did have rather a queer way of 
talking, felt that the least she could do was 
to bring a chair close to the fire and poke the 
logs into a blaze for him ; and of course he 
insisted upon doing the poking for her, and 
that led to more conversation. 

** It’s a jolly little place you’ve got here,” 
he said, leaving the fire to examine the motley 
array of pretty trifies that covered the gift- 
table. I saw it yesterday as I drove up from 
the station, and I realized that it would 
probably save my life. You see, I’ve been 
years in England, and I’m awfully addicted 
to afternoon tea. If I had my way, we’d 
serve it regularly at the factory, but a lot of 
more important things must come first, so I 
shan’t queer myself by mentioning anything 


BETTT WALES & CO. 135 

so frivolous as tea yet a while — especially when 
I can just climb the fence and drop in here. 
I say/^ he added quickly, “ you don’t mind 
my coming in over the fence, do you ? It’s 
licks shorter.” 

Over the fence ? ” repeated Betty slowly. 
“ Why, I didn’t know there was a fence.” 
She glanced out of the front window, in- 
terrogatively. 

“ Oh, not over there on the college side,” 
explained the young man impatiently. Be- 
hind, between you and the stocking factory. 
I’m not a new college professor. I’m attached 
to the stocking factory.” 

Nora brought in his tea just then, and he 
drank it very fast and quite in silence. 

I shall be in to-morrow,” he told Betty, as 
he paid his bill, and I shall want the same 
things, except orange marmalade instead of 
the jam. Could you have it all ready for me 
at four? You see this break in the middle of 
the afternoon is — er — rather unauthorized, so 
I can’t be gone long.” 

Betty promised and he hurried off, while 
Madeline and Mary, who had been listening 
and peeping surreptitiously from behind their 


136 BETTT WALES & CO. 

curtain, rushed down to tease Betty and watch 
her visitor climb the fence. It was five feet 
high and of solid boards, but he vaulted it 
easily, and they watched him sprint up the 
snowy slope on the other side and disappear 
through a basement door into the great factory 
that crowned the hill. 

“ Who in the world can he be ? ” demanded 
Mary excitedly. ‘‘ I didn’t suppose that kind 
of man worked in a factory. He might be the 
owner, but apparently he’s only just come 
upon the scene for the first time.” 

A new manager, probably, of a very 
superior brand,” Madeline suggested. He 
certainly has some authority, because he talked 
about making changes. But he didn’t act a 
bit businesslike. We’ll just have to call him 
Young-Man-Over-the-Fence and await develop- 
ments. Hist ! Customers approach, and must 
not discover me in my work-apron.” And 
Madeline rushed headlong up the stairs, and 
slipped behind the curtain just in time to 
escape a merry party of freshmen seeking re- 
freshment after a regular terror ” of a written 
lesson in Latin. 

I was going to have tea to-day myself,” 


BETrr WALES & CO. 


137 


Mary told Betty, but I think I'll wait till to- 
morrow — at four exactly. Young-Man -Over- 
the-Fence must learn not to expect a tete-a-tete 
thrown in with the tea." 

But the gentleman in question appeared 
not at all put out, when he arrived next day 
punctually on the stroke of four, to find a 
dainty little lady, who smiled demurely down 
into her teacup, in possession of his chosen 
table, and a white-capped maid ready to inter- 
cept his progress to Betty's desk with the in- 
formation that his tea would be served in one 
minute, at the table by the fire or in one of the 
stalls, just as he preferred. 

He didn't even glance in Betty's direction 
as he slipped silently into a chair by the fire, 
looking tired and dejected somehow, and star- 
ing gloomily into a dusky corner straight 
ahead of him while he waited. But he had a 
sudden smile and a “ thank you " for Nora 
when she hurried back with his tray, and he 
ate and drank with* evident enjoyment. 

You don't ask enough for your tea," he told 
Betty, after having carefully ascertained from 
Nora that one always paid one's bill at the desk. 

I ought to be charged three prices for such a 


138 BETTT WALES & CO. 

very big pot. Did you say I have been charged 
an extra big price ? He shook his head 
dubiously. “ I don't believe you make enough 
then. And I say, is it permissible for cus- 
tomers to make suggestions — not complaints, 
you understand, but hints for improvements ? 
Well, in my father's English stables the name 
of each horse and a picture of it is nailed up at 
the head of the stall. Don't you think that 
would take well here ? " He waved his hand 
toward the stalls. “ Winona, Prince, Down- 
and-Out, Vixen, King o' Spades — you get the 
idea? And little colored prints fastened just 
below the names." 

“ I think that would be splendid," Betty told 
him cordially. It would be a real feature, 
to be able to order your lunch served in Vixen's 
stall or Prince's, instead of just in the third or 
first. I'll tell Madeline — I mean Miss Ayres 
— and I'm sure she'll see to it." 

‘‘ Is she the decorating committee ? " in- 
quired the young man. “ Because if so, she's 
certainly to be congratulated. And does she 
also make the pretty things on that table ? 
I'm coming over here for lunch some day, and 
then I shall have time to select Christmas gifts. 


BETTT WALES & CO, 139 

Marmalade again to-morrow, please. Good- 
bye.” 

The next afternoon he came carrying a hand- 
ful of scarlet pepper berries. ** I had a lot sent 
on from California,” he explained, “ to brighten 
up our barracks over there. They’ll fit in 
beautifully here, won’t they ? ” 

“ He’s heard about the Perfect Patrons’ 
Society,” Mary declared, ‘‘ and he’s trying to 
qualify for membership. Let him in on con- 
dition that he explains himself. I’m simply 
bursting with curiosity.” 

But Young-Man -0 ver-the-Fence came for his 
tea, calmly oblivious of the interest he had 
aroused. He generally arrived tired and list- 
less, and he always hurried out smiling. 

You will save my life yet,” he told Betty 
gaily one day. I generally forget to go to 
lunch, but I never pass up my tea. If ever I 
should, Nora must run up the hill and remind 
me — no, that would be a lot of trouble for her, 
because she couldn’t climb the fence, and it’s 
further round by the street.” 

'' Then you mustn’t forget,” Betty insisted. 

And I’m sure you oughtn’t to miss your 
lunch either,” she added gravely. It must 


140 BETTT WALES & CO. 

be very bad for your health. Is the stocking 
business so absorbing? 

The young man laughed good-humoredly. 
It’s not the stocking business exactly that’s 
absorbing ; it’s the people who make the 
stockings. There’s a little Italian boy whose 
hand was caught in a machine yesterday 
morning. He was responsible for my passing 
up yesterday’s lunch. And there are two old 
men — Russians — who know hardly a word of 
English. They’re terribly forlorn and lonely. 
And then the girls, and the miserable little 

children Oh, it’s a paradise compared to 

our mills in the South, of course, but — I’m 
afraid I’m boring you. Perhaps you aren’t 
interested in such things.” 

Oh, yes, I am,” Betty told him earnestly, 
only I don’t know very much about them. 

Are you — do you ” 

I try to see that the workers are all safer 
and happier,” he helped her out. It’s very 
hard to accomplish much. The manager 
thinks I’m crazy, and the workers won’t trust 
me because I’m my father’s son. It’s my 
father’s mill, you understand. If I plan a 
dance or a concert they think it’s some new 


BETTT WALES & CO. 141 

kind of trap to lower wages or get in non- 
union workers, or to make them buy a lot of 
new clothes at the Company’s store.” He 
smiled sadly at Betty. I suppose the tea- 
room business isn’t all roses, but I can tell 
you it looks like long-stemmed American 
beauties compared to my job. I must be 
off. Next time it will be your turn to 
grumble.” 

But when the hour of Young-Man-Over- 
the-Fence struck the next day, Betty had a 
friend beside her desk — Babbie Hildreth, just 
arrived in response to a despairing summons 
from Betty, who had found the keeping up of 
the gift-shop department through the Christ- 
mas rush, with Mary off to hear Dr. Hinsdale 
read his famous paper, Madeline tired -and 
worried over her neglected stories, and the 
college girh helpers overwhelmed with end-of- 
the-term papers and festivities, a good deal 
more than she could manage. 

Of course we oughtn’t to stop now,” Bab- 
bie agreed eagerly as she listened to Betty’s 
account of the situation, I’m ready to pitch 
in day and night. I haven’t had anything 
on hand that I absolutely had to do for so 


142 BETTT WALES & CO. 

long that I feel half asleep. Who’s the long- 
legged man, Betty ? ” 

Betty explained. '' We don’t know his 
nanae,” she concluded, so Madeline calls 
him Young-Man-0 ver-the-Fence.” 

Babbie nodded comprehendingly. Of 
course he can jump fences, but if he couldn’t 
he’d get over them all the same — witness his 
chin. He’s got nice eyes and a nice smile, 
but I hate a chin like that.” 

“ You’ve got quite a determined chin your- 
self, Babbie Hildreth,” Betty reminded her 
laughingly. 

“ Probably that’s why I hate them for other 
people,” Babbie admitted. “ Well, I’m going 
up to let Madeline set me to work.” 

The nice eyes ” of Young-Man-Over-the- 
Fence followed her graceful little figure ab- 
sently, as she climbed the stairs. He had 
dawdled an unprecedented time over bus tea, 
watching the pretty picture that she and Betty 
made, absorbed in their merry, animated 
talk. 

Some day I think you might let me go 
up-stairs,” he told Betty, as he paid his bill. 

I’ve noticed that all your very nicest cus- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 143 

tomers do it. I^m a very regular customer — if 
that counts in any one’s favor.” 

“ Babbie isn’t a customer,” Betty explained. 
“ She’s one of the firm. Mrs. Hinsdale is a 
customer, but she helps us make things. 
The gift-shop workroom is up there, you 
know.” 

Is it? Well, I’ll help make things too, if 
you’ll let me come,” he promised. You 
keep it up evenings, don’t you? I was at 
the factory last night, and I saw your 
light going up there. I thought seriously of 
coming over to protest against your infring- 
ing on the working man’s rule for an eight- 
hour day. If I had, would you have let 
me in? ” 

I presume so,” Betty admitted laughingly, 
because we should have thought it was 
Georgia Ames come to say good-night, or 
some college girl, who had filled orders for us, ; 
bringing the things.” 

Young-Man-Over-the-Fence nodded approv- 
ingly. Then the next evening that I find 
myself perishing of loneliness I shall try it.” 
And he rushed for the door so violently that 
he almost ran down a pair of little freshmen, 


144 BETTT wales & CO. 

who were chattering too busily about their 
senior crushes to look out for human 
whirlwinds coming along in the opposite 
direction. 


v 


CHAPTER IX 


AN ORDER FOR A PARTY 

SUPPOSE people do sometimes have to be 
away from their homes on Christmas day.’^ 
Betty held the extra-special shade she had 
just finished up against the light, and gazed 
pensively at the prancing horses and the hos- 
pitable red roof of the inn. 

“ It has been done,” gurgled Madeline, her 
mouth full of pins, “ and it will be done 
again, with the Washington Square home- 
stead rented and Sorrento, Italy, a little inac- 
cessible from Harding, U. S. A.” 

Poor, lonely lady ! Come and eat your 
Christmas dinner with mummy and me,” 
urged Babbie sympathetically. Is it Tues- 
day or Wednesday that college closes?” 

Not till Wednesday,” murmured Made- 
line, “ and then it^s me for freedom and the 
literary life ! ” She took the pins out cau- 
tiously, one by one. IPs dear of you to ask 
me for the vacation. Babbie, but Vve got to 
145 


146 BETTT WALES & CO, 

improve the shining hours. While the tea- 
room is shut, and Betty, the cruel slave- 
driver, has gone to be clasped in the arms of 
her adored and adoring family, I shall turn 
our palatial apartment into an author’s para- 
dise — papers everywhere, genius burning, and 
positively no dusting allowed. If the wall- 
paper gets on my nerves T shall come over and 
start a fire here, and try the effect of a desk 
with a secret drawer in it on the imagination 
that Dick Blake rudely says I haven’t got.” 

I’m sorry, Madeline, but I don’t think I 
can go home.” Betty was swallowing hard to 
keep back the tears. She had thought it all 
out in the night, and made up her mind not 
to care, but telling it made it seem more final 
some way, and consequently worse. Some 
of the orders can’t be filled until the last 
minute, and some will surely be late and have 
to be mailed. I haven’t made any payments 
to outsiders for two weeks, because I couldn’t 
take time to go over the accounts. I shouldn’t 
enjoy Christmas with all those things hanging 
over my head.” 

Then stop making those everlasting candle- 
shades and go to work on the accounts this 


BETTT WALES & CO. 147 

very minute/^ commanded Babbie, with a tilt 
of her determined chin. 

“ But if I do that,’^ Betty objected, “ we 
can^t possibly fill our orders. Besides, I don^t 
believe the tea-room ought to be closed dur- 
ing the vacation. A good many girls stay 
over, and anyway it won’t seem businesslike.” 

“ I’ll keep it open then,” declared Madeline 
magnanimously. 

Oh, you couldn’t ever manage, Madeline. 

You’d make a mess ” Betty stopped 

short, with a swift effort to be tactful. 

You’d ruin your imagination, I mean, 
thinking up new sandwiches and paying 
grocer’s bills.” 

Babbie and Madeline exchanged despairing 
glances. 

I won’t dust our room, Madeline,” Betty 
promised, not once in the whole two weeks, 
and you may scatter papers wherever you like, 
And you mustn’t think I mind terribly. Bab- 
bie. You’ve got to tend up to things you do 

for a living or else Oh, dear ! who is 

that knocking? ” 

I’ll go,” Babbie offered, because I’ve just 
washed the paint off my hands.” 


148 BETrr WALES & CO. 

So Babbie Hildreth and not Betty, who 
had been sympathetic about lonely evenings, 
opened the door for Young-Man-Over-the- 
Fence, and after a frigid “ Good-evening 
stood frowning in disapproving silence while 
she waited for him to explain himself. 

I came to ask — that is, I wanted to see 
about placing an order. I suppose I shouldn’t 
have come this evening, only I was in a hurry 
to get things settled right away. Is Miss — 
the young woman who sits at the desk — could 
I see her? ” 

I’m not sure,” Babbie told him coldl3^ 
** You can’t have dinner here, you know. 
This tea-shop closes at six, and it’s nearly 
eight now.” 

I’m very sorry,” murmured Young-Man- 
Over-the-Fence contritely. Babbie Hildreth 
in a blue gingham studio apron, with a dis- 
tractingly becoming dinner-gown peeping out 
from underneath it, was a sight calculated to 
inspire contrition in the breast of any man 
who had unwittingly incurred her displeasure. 
** I’ll come back in the morning — no, in the 
afternoon,” he added humbly. 

'' If it was an order for Tally-ho candle- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 149 

shades/’ Babbie told him, still icily, ** we’re 
not taking any more. We have all the work 
that we can finish for Christmas already.” 

“ No, it’s not candle-shades,” Young-Man- 
Over-the-Fence assured her blandly. It’s a 
bigger thing than that.” He paused impress- 
ively and was rewarded when a gleam of 
curiosity crossed Babbie’s impassive little face. 

I’ll come back to-morrow afternoon,” he re- 
peated. 

Wait a minute,” Babbie commanded 
swiftly. Betty had inspired her with a sense 
of the importance of being businesslike, and 
here was a big order that ought, perhaps, to 
be treated with special respect and considera- 
tion. I’ll tell Miss Wales that you’re here 
and possibly she can see you more conveni- 
ently now. The name, please ? ” 

Robert Thayer, Junior, from the stocking 
factory,” he told her. And say, please, that 
I’ve come on business, about a Christmas party 
that I want to arrange for.” 

'' I don’t think we do catering for parties,” 
Babbie told him, “ and I believe we are to 
close for the Christmas holidays. But I’ll 
tell her.” 


150 BETTT WALES & CO, 

A minute later Betty was shaking hands 
with Young-Man-Over-the-Fence, alias Mr. 
Robert Thayer, Junior, of the stocking 
factory. 

“ It’s lucky I didn’t just cut in here to be 
cheered up, as I’d intended to,” he explained 
with a sigh of relief. “That other member 
of the firm is a suspicious person — or per- 
haps you’d warned her against me. But her 
theories were unfounded. May we sit down ? 
You see I’ve had an inspiration, and I couldn’t 
wait to get it going.” 

“ That’s just like Madeline,” laughed Betty. 
“ She wakes me up in the middle of the night 
with her inspirations. Once she even wanted 
me to dress and come over here with her to 
see whether we could make a big horseshoe 
out of oats.” Betty pointed to the one over 
the fireplace. “ And then when I wouldn’t, 
she was days and days getting around to it.” 

Mr. Thayer laughed appreciatively. “ I 
understand that perfectly. There’s every- 
thing in being in the right mood for things. 
Now to-night I’m hot on the trail of a Christ- 
mas party. I was over in my office directing 
invitations — they like to get formal invita- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 151 

tions, you know — when it suddenly struck 
me that if I had a regulation Christmas party 
it would naturally be a regulation failure, like 
the others I’ve tried. So I racked my brains 
for something extraordinary, and nothing 
came. Then I looked over here and thought 
of all the extraordinary things you’ve planned, 
and here I am to place an order for one ex- 
traordinary party, with food, all guaranteed 
to please three hundred assorted factory 
hands.” 

Betty stared at him in amazement. I 
don’t understand ” she began. 

Young-Man-Over-the-Fence smiled his 
merry, reassuring smile. As your tea-shop 
is to the regulation kind of tea-shop, so is the 
Christmas party I want to the regular thing. 
I want it to look something like this room, to 
be— well -” 

“ Stunty,” supplied Betty quickly. 

Stunty — that’s a new one on me, but if it 

describes all this ” He waved his hand 

comprehensively at the fire, at a grinning 
gargoyle with its hanging lantern, and across 
to the dusky line of stalls. 

“ Features, Madeline calls the queer little 


15*2 BETTT WALES & CO. 

touches/^ Betty broke in again. “ I under- 
stand what you want. You want a party in 
Harding style, — that will go off the way the 
spreads and Hallowe'en things and freshmen 
frolics do. Madeline could think up some- 
thing lovely. But I don't see — how did you 
happen to come to us ? " 

Because I felt sure you could get me what 
I wanted." 

But we don't do things like that," Betty 
objected. 

Then you ought to," he told her. There's 
a field for it." He laughed merrily. I'm 
the field. And — I dislike to mention any- 
thing so sordid, but it pays very well, much 
better than tea and candle-shades, I'm sure. 
In London once I remember my sister paid 
twenty pounds to a firm for planning her a 
cotillion. I'd thought that would be about 
right for this party." 

“ Twenty pounds — why, that's a hundred 
dollars ! " cried Betty incredulously. 

The young man nodded. That doesn't 
include the refreshments, you understand. 
It's for the design only — the design for a 
stunty party with features. And then think 


BETrr WALES & CO. 153 

of all the pleasure you’ll be giving. But — I 
forgot ; the young lady who let me in said 
you were going to close your shop for Christ- 
mas. Perhaps that means that you won’t be 
here to run a party on Christmas eve.” 

Betty smiled sadly. “We were just dis- 
cussing that and we’ve decided — at least, I’ve 
decided, to keep open during the holidays. 
But we’re very busy.” She considered, 
frowning. “ It all depends on whether Made- 
line likes the idea,” she decided at last. “ I’ll 
call her down, and you can tell her about it.” 

“ Oh, wait one minute,” he begged, as Betty 
started off. “ Tell me how to make her like 
it, please. Is she the one who let me in ? ” 

“ No,” Betty told him, “ but of course Bab- 
bie will have to approve too.” She stopped 
to consider again. “ I’d tell you how to 
make Madeline like it if I knew myself, but I 
don’t. It just depends on how a thing strikes 
her.” 

But when Madeline and Babbie appeared, 
Betty did help by breaking the ice, for she 
gravely presented “ Mr. Fence ” to the other 
members of the firm, whereupon Madeline 
promptly told him about his pseudonym at 


154 BETTT WALES & CO. 

the Tally-ho, and then, rather abashed by her 
own temerity, lit the candles in the stalls to 
show him how she had named them that very 
evening, according to his suggestion. 

So they were all, except Babbie, very 
friendly, when they sat down again to discuss 
Mr. Thayer’s order ; and Mr. Thayer seemed 
to have decided that it was safest to ignore 
Babbie, for he addressed himself entirely to 
Madeline, as he explained again what he 
wanted. 

And of course, because it was absurd and 
unexpected, Madeline liked the idea. She 
forgot how busy they were already, and how 
she hated conducting rehearsals and working 
out details. She threw her Literary Career to 
the winds. 

“You want it on Christmas eve? ’’she be- 
gan briskly. “ Then we’ll have a masque of 
the Christmas stockings to start off with. 
Isn’t that an appropriate touch for the stock- 
ing-makers’ Christmas party ? How old are 
your youngest stocking-makers, please ? ” 

“ They say they’re fourteen, as the law re- 
quires,” explained Mr. Thayer grimly, “ but 
you’d never know it. Anyhow they’re small 


BETTT WALES & CO. 155 

enough to do beautifully for a masque of the 
Christmas stockings.’^ 

And then/' Madeline went on, staring 
hard at the shiny tip of Babbie's slipper, “ and 
then — well. Twelfth Night isn't till the sixth 
of January, but probably the stocking-makers 
won't object to anticipating the date a little. 
We'll have a pageant of Twelfth Night cakes 
and Twelfth Night bakers. And we'll choose 
and crown a King and Queen of the Bevels, 
in accepted Twelfth Night style. Does that 
sound promising to you, Mr. Thayer? " 

“ It sounds great," he assured her enthusi- 
astically, and I'm sure it will be as good 
as it sounds." 

The invitation card," Madeline ordered 
calmly, “ is to have a beautifully frosted cake 
at the top and a stocking with a Santa Claus 
head sticking out of it at the bottom. You'll 
just have to throw away the ones you got 
ready to-night. I'll come around some time 
to-morrow to look over my children." 

Thank you. That will be great," said 
Mr. Thayer eagerly, and suddenly turned to 
Babbie, who had listened in silence to all 
Madeline's enthusiastic planning. Won't 


156 BETTT WALES & CO. 

you please come too ? It^s a queer place. I 
think you’d like going through it.” 

“ I shall probably have to come,” Babbie 
told him rather ungraciously, because Mad- 
eline can’t go alone, and Betty will be too busy.” 

I’m sorry that I should be the means of 
inconveniencing you,” Mr. Thayer told her 
gravely, holding out his hand. Good-night.” 
And he was gone, with only a nod for the 
others. 

“ Goodness, Babbie, but you’re chilly,” 
Madeline protested. 

** Well, you’re absurd,” Babbie retorted. 
“ You can never make such a thing go in the 
world, Madeline. That sort of people won’t 
know how to carry it through.” 

Of course not,” Madeline conceded. “ I’ve 
thought of that. Some of the children will 
do for Stockings, but for the Cakes and the 
Jester and alx that, I’m going to have college 
girls who stay here over the holidays. I 
think I’ll go up now to see Georgia about 
who’ll be here.” 

Oh, what a splendid idea ! ” cried Betty 
eagerly. I’d been wishing we could make a 
Christmas for the left-overs.” 


BETTT WALES & CO, 157 

I don’t believe they’ll want to bother with 
anything like this,” objected Babbie. Be- 
sides, only freaks stay over Christmas.” 

Bother ! ” Madeline took her up. They’ll 
jump at it — the freaks particularly, because 
they don’t get in on such gay doings very 
often. Now, Betty, don’t you worry about my 
helping on the * extra-special ’ order-list. I 
was afraid Mr. Thayer would be scared off if 
I explained that I meant to dump all the 
finishing touches on the left-over girls. They 
can make the costumes, too, Wednesday night 
and Thursday.” 

If he knew you better, he would have been 
sure that you’d never bother with any finish- 
ing touches yourself,” Babbie remarked crush- 
ingly. 

How can you expect a person who has 
such splendid ideas to bother with fussy little 
details?” put in Betty, who listened in 
wondering admiration to Madeline’s offhand 
suggestions. “ I’m sure the college girls will 
like to help. The only trouble is, if they do 
most of the work who ought to have the hun- 
dred dollars ? ” 

“ What hundred dollars ? ” chorused the 


158 BETTr WALES & CO. 

other two, and Betty explained that the 
financial side of the Tally-ho’s biggest order 
was being entirely overlooked. 

It ought not to be put in with the tea- 
room profits, except the bill for the refresh- 
ments,” Babbie declared, and I certainly 
ought not to have any of it. I shan’t be any 
help. You and Madeline can divide, because 
you made friends with him first, and she 
thought up the entertainment.” 

But if the others sew for us ” began 

Betty. 

“ Oh, let’s wait and see how it comes out,” 
Madeline suggested easily, slipping on her 
ulster. You two can be planning Twelfth 
Night cakes for refreshments, while I’m gone. 
Did you ever see them in London, Babbie? 
They’re fearfully and wonderfully concocted.” 

At the door she came back to make an- 
other suggestion. All big businesses have 
their pet charities. We might have the 
stocking people for ours. We could just ask 
Mr. Thayer to pay the expenses, and make 
him spend the rest of the money for a club- 
house — well, keep it toward a club-house 
then, Miss Betty the practical.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 159 

Next morning Madeline came back from 
her visit to the factory more enthusiastic, if 
possible, than before. She had talked to the 
Italian boy with the bandaged arm — he came 
down every day to have it dressed by the 
company’s doctor — and he was from Sorrento 
and knew her father, had posed for him once 
in the olive orchard behind the villa. Even 
Babbie had been interested in the children, 
Italians, French, Poles, Bohemians, Greeks, 
dark-eyed, swift-fingered, chattering eagerly 
to “ da pretta lada ” in broken English, and 
all agog over the mysterious Christmas party. 

“ They live all together down there some- 
where.” Babbie pointed vaguely off behind 
the kitchen. They were nearly all brought 
over to this country three years ago, when the 
factory was opened. It’s a real foreign 
quarter, Mr. Thayer says, with old-country 
customs and pitiful poverty and ignorance. 
It’s queer that we never knew anything about 
them, isn’t it? The college is on that hill, 
and the factory on this, and yet they’re so far 
apart that one has hardly heard of the other.” 

So the stocking people weren’t so ter- 
ribly unpleasant after all ? ” asked Betty slyly. 


i66 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Babbie blushed faintly. '' Well, you and 
Madeline made me cross. You gave in so to 
his chin. I suppose I was disagreeable, but I 
was perfect to-day, wasn’t I, Madeline ? ” 

Depends on what you mean by perfect,” 
Madeline told her. If you mean that you 
made everybody in the place from the social 
secretary, or whatever Mr. Robert Thayer, 
Junior, calls himself, to the smallest cotton- 

spinner of them all fall madly in 1 ” 

Madeline and the rest of her sentence found 
themselves smothered under a huge cushion, 
which Babbie pummeled viciously. 

Don’t bother me about that,” she com- 
manded wrathfully. “ One minute you say 
I’m haughty and disagreeable, and the 
next ” 

** The next,” Betty told her comfortingly, 
*^we only say you’re such a darling, that peo- 
ple can’t help seeing it, you silly child.” 

“ I don’t care,” sniffed Babbie tearfully. 

I shan’t go over there again, and I shan’t be 
here for his old party. So now ! ” 

After which declaration of rights, Babbie did 
her hair low in her neck, donned her most 
becoming afternoon dress, and asked a dozen 


BETTT WALES & CO. i6i 


adoring freshmen to tea with her in the stall 
named “ Jack o^ Hearts/^ As Babbie sat in 
the most secluded corner of the stall, it is 
doubtful if anything but the tip of her ear, a 
nodding plume, and an absurdly small hand 
stretched out to press more of Cousin Kate’s 
cookies upon a hungry freshman, could have 
been visible to the staid young gentleman 
who had his tea at a small table in the alcove 
opposite. 

“ He’s the new history professor,” one of 
the freshmen announced in a sepulchral 
whisper. Isn’t he handsome ? ” 

No, he isn’t,” snapped Babbie. Isn’t 
the new history professor, I mean. He’s 
something or other in a factory. So don’t be 
making plans to move into a history course 
after midyears, Susanna.” 


CHAPTER X 


UNEXPECTED VISITORS 

Madeline composed the Masque of the 
Christmas Stockings in the first frenzy of her 
enthusiasm, and then, declaring that genius 
wouldn’t burn any more, she left the Pageant 
of Twelfth Night Cakes until so late that 
Betty was in despair ; and she persistently 
forgot the Christmas Stockings’ rehearsals un- 
til Babbie, rallying to the honor of the 
Tally-ho, took them in charge. 

Don’t you wish you were going to stay for 
the party ? ” Mr. Thayer asked her, at her last 
rehearsal, while Madeline, who had come to 
take over the reins again, was giving her final 
directions to the children. In the intervals 
of the rehearsal, she had scribbled off some 
songs and speeches for the Cakes, which were 
so clever that Babbie had been compelled to 
drop what Madeline had wickedly dubbed her 
Perfect Manner and laugh heartily over them, 
as she and Mr. Thayer read them together. 
"l62 


BETTT WALES & CO, 163 

Her Perfect Manner was quite different from 
the one that she had hastily called perfect on 
the day of her first visit to the stocking fac- 
tory. Madeline had written the other B's 
about it, describing it deftly as Sweetness 
from a Long Way off.^^ 

So now Babbie answered with distant cour- 
tesy, Of course I’m very much interested in 
the party, but I shouldn’t think of not going 
home for Christmas.” 

Oh, certainly not,” Mr. Thayer agreed 
hastily. “ I shouldn’t either, only I haven’t 
been sufficiently urged. I had a letter from 
my father yesterday saying that the laws I 
got passed last month by the state legislature 
were going to ruin him, so now I’m not even 
expecting a present.” 

Why do you go to work and have laws 
passed that your father doesn’t like ? ” in- 
quired Babbie severely. 

“ You wouldn’t want me to have any passed 
that could possibly please him, would you ? ” 
Mr. Thayer retorted, and when he caught the 
flicker of interest in Babbie’s eyes he went on, 
** You see. Miss Hildreth, my father has the 
wrong point of view. He always thinks of 


i 64 BETTT wales & CO, 

the dollars, where he ought to think of the 
workers. He holds to the old-fashioned theory 
that the man who toils hasn’t any feelings. 
He’s never seen any of his factories. He sits 
in an office in New York, at a shiny mahogany 
desk with twenty nice little pigeon-holes in it, 
one for each of his factories. When a man- 
ager’s report shows fat profits, he smiles and 
tucks it into its pigeon-hole. If the profits go 
down, he sends for the manager — or bounces 
him without sending for him. When I left 
college he gave me a pigeon-hole.” 

This factory, you mean ? ” asked Babbie. 

Not at first. He’s changed my pigeon- 
hole several times. First he gave me a mill 
in South Carolina, and I went down and 
wrote about the appalling conditions there for 
one of the prominent magazines.” 

That was rather unkind of you, wasn’t it,” 
Babbie demanded, when he’d just given you 
the factory ? ” 

The young man smiled. My father 
thought it was, but I maintained that I could 
do as I pleased with my own property. Any- 
how he took back his little gift and sent me 
to a beet-sugar plant out in Michigan, and told 


BETTT WALES & CO. 165 

me to see if I could keep out of mischief there. 
Well, the railroads were all giving us special 
freight rates, and we were fairly coining 
money and crushing all our competitors to 
the wall. I told them they must play fair, 
or I’d expose them. My father was furious, 
— but I think he was just a little proud too, 
to find that I couldn’t be taken in. So we 
had a big pow-wow about the duty of sons 
and fair play in business, and he finally agreed 
to give me a free hand here, at the least profit- 
able factory he owns. Whatever profits there 
are I am to have to improve conditions with, 
and I can take as long as I like to show my 
father that it pays to treat your men like hu- 
man beings.” 

I don’t see the use of fussing so much to 
prove that,” Babbie told him coldly. If 
they don’t like working for him, they can 
leave, can’t they ? ” 

If they enjoy starving they can,” Mr. 
Thayer told her grimly. Then he smiled the 
smile that Babbie always warmed to in spite 
of herself. You’re a capitalist and an em- 
ployer yourself. Miss Hildreth. If you have 
such mistaken ideas on the labor question, I 


i66 BETTT WALES & CO. 


think I ought to stop patronizing your firm. 
You may be abusing the cook.^^ 

I’m afraid she is overworked days when 
there’s a rush,” Babbie admitted soberly. 

But if she says she’s tired, we always send 
her home in a carriage, and she calls us all 
‘ me darlin’.’ ” 

Mr. Thayer threw back his head and 
laughed. ^‘Then I can certainly patronize 
you with a clear conscience. I’m so relieved. 
It would be terrible to have to call off the 
Christmas party.” 

It would indeed have been tragic to call off 
the Christmas party, with three hundred 
eager factory hands, not to mention twenty- 
five homesick college girls, looking forward 
to it as the great event of the holiday season. 
The whole college had heard about it, and 
took a deep and envious interest in the pro- 
ceedings. 

“Just mean of you to give it when I can’t 
come,” grumbled Georgia. 

“ Madeline, let us repeat the Pageant of the 
Twelfth Night Cakes for Dramatic Club’s 
January meeting,” begged Polly Eastman. 

“ Make him have another party when we’re 


BETTT WALES & CO, 167 

here/^ put in the fluffy-haired Dutton twin. 

It's hateful of you to keep him all to your- 
selves." 

College closed at noon on Wednesday, and 
lunch hour at the Tally-ho was a pell-mell 
rush of happy, hungry girls, loaded down 
with suit-cases, running out between courses 
to look for that dastardly cabman who said 
he never in his life was late," or hailing a 
passing car with a frantic wave of a sandwich 
wrapped in a paper napkin. “ And it's all 
I'll get till eight to-night," they assured Betty 
joyously, for lunch is a small thing when 
you're going home for Christmas. Betty rev- 
eled in the rush and the gay confusion. 
She helped little Ruth Howard spirit Lucile 
Merrifield's suit-case into a secluded corner to 
tuck in a mysterious little package tied with 
holly ribbon. She took orders for belated 
gifts, repacked bags that simply wouldn't 
hold their owner's left-over note-books and 
last purchases until she took them in hand. 
She looked up trains, promised to forward 
trunk checks that hadn't come in time, and 
was here, there, and everywhere until, when 
she heard the far-away whistle of the two- 


t68 BETTT wales & CO. 


fifteen, she gave a little sigh of relief and de- 
clared that she felt like the distracted centi- 
pede in the nonsense rhyme. 

And then a dismal quiet descended on the 
Tally-ho Tea-Shop. Madeline was up-stairs 
with a bevy of Cakes, who were rehearsing 
and working on their costumes. Betty re- 
fused to join them until she had straightened 
out her accounts ; she had a horror of being 
behind with them. So she was sitting quite 
alone working busily, when Eugenia Ford 
came in. Eugenia's pretty face was tear- 
stained, her eyes were swollen half shut, and 
her whole appearance was as limp and woe- 
begone as it usually was alert and aggressive. 
She hesitated for a minute, and then crossed 
quickly to Betty's desk. 

** Good-afternoon, Miss Ford," Betty said 
cheerfully, tactfully ignoring the tear-stains, 
and then she waited, not knowing how to go 
on. 

But Eugenia only nodded and stared at her 
in dumb misery, evidently afraid to speak 
lest the tears should start again. 

So, Won't you sit down ? " Betty sug- 
gested cordially. Or did you want to go up 


BETTT WALES & CO. 169 

and see Madeline and the Cakes? They’re 
behind the curtains in the loft, rehearsing.” 

Eugenia dropped into a chair. I’m not 
going home for Christmas,” she announced 
tremulously. 

Oh, aren’t you ? ” Betty began comfort- 
ingly. “ Well, then you must certainly have 
a part in the Masque of the Cakes. You’d 
make a lovely Sugar Cooky, and I heard 
Madeline say they needed more.” 

“ I — I look like — a fr-fright,” choked 
Eugenia, stifling a sob, “ if that’s how a sugar 
cooky looks, and I don’t want to see any- 
body b-but you.” 

All right,” Betty assured her hastily, 
then you shan’t. There won’t be a soul in 
here now for a while. Please don’t feel so un- 
happy, but tell me what I can do to help you.” 

“ I’ve been warned in three different 
studies.” Eugenia’s voice was weighted with 
the tragic, signiflcance of her words. And I 
th-thought I was doing beautifully,” she 
added, w^hile two big tears rolled slowly down 
her soft cheeks. Eugenia dabbed at them 
with a very damp handkerchief. 

Oh, I’m so sorry,” cried Betty sympathet- 


lyo BETTT WALES & CO. 

ically, racking her brains, meanwhile, to think 
why in the world Eugenia Ford had come to 
her with her tale of woe. “ It’s the worst 
thing about freshman year, I think — the not 
being able to tell how you’ve done, nor what 
the teachers expect of you. I worried fear- 
fully, I remember.” 

‘^Were you warned too?” demanded Eu- 
genia with the frankness of despair. 

N-no.” Betty was really sorry at the 
moment that she hadn’t been. But lots of 
my friends were,” she added consolingly. 

My father and mother think I ought to 
have known that I wasn’t studying enough,” 
Eugenia explained. You see, I didn’t pass 
my prep, school exams one year and my fa- 
ther thought that was perfectly dreadful, so 
he’s extra cross now. I had to write home 
about it, because of all the money I shall 
need for a tutor, and when I did that, my 
father said I should stay on here through the 
vacation and w-work.” 

It’s hard now not to go home, but you’ll 
be glad you didn’t next term, I guess,” Betty 
suggested. The time just flies, from the day 
college opens again to midyears.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 171 

Well/^ continued Eugenia gloomily, then 
my tutor changed her mind at the last minute 
and went off and left me, and Miss Ferris — 
she^s our class officer — told me to come to you. 
I said 1 didn't think you ever tutored, but 
she said to come all the same and she sent you 
a note. Oh, I ought to have given you the 
note first I " A big tear splashed down on the 
address, as she handed Miss Ferris's note to 
Betty. 

“ Dear little helper," Miss Ferris had 
written, “ here's a chance for you to cultivate 
the right kind of college spirit. That's what 
Miss Ford needs. She seems bright enough 
to keep up with her class easily. You must 
inspire her with pride in her work and de- 
termination to do it justice. I needn't tell 
you that she's a dreadful little snob. Some 
day you must tell me why she begged me most 
pathetically to send her to anybody else but you. 

‘‘ Merry Christmas, 

** Margaret Ferris." 

Betty read it all through twice, while 
Eugenia, huddled in a forlorn little heap, 
watched her eagerly. 


172 BETTT WALES & CO, 

Oh, dear, I just can’t,^’ she began at last. 

Miss Ferris has forgotten what a stupid I 

was. And if you should be She had 

started to say “ flunked out at midyears,’' and 
paused in blank dismay at her own thought- 
lessness. 

Oh, but I won’t,” Eugenia took her up 
earnestly, reading Betty’s thoughts in the 
light of her own guilty conscience. I 
promise I won’t be horrid. I was — the other 
day — I was — well, I’m awfully ashamed of it 
now, Miss Wales, and I just hated to come 
and ask a favor of you, after having been so 
disagreeable, but I couldn’t actually disobey 
Miss Ferris, could I ? If you’ll only take me. 
I’ll do just as you say, and work awfully 
hard, and try not to be much bother.” 

Betty gave a deep sigh, and then a comical 
little laugh. “ I’m sure you will,” she said. 

And I shall have to do it. Don’t you see I 
shall? Miss Ferris has gone away for the 
vacation, hasn’t she ? Well, I can’t disobey 
her either, or disappoint her. But just im- 
agine me tutoring anybody ! ” Betty sighed 
again resignedly. 

Miss Ferris said you’d be the best one she 


BETTT WALES & CO. 173 

could possibly pick out for me,” Eugenia told 
her, smiling wanly through her tears. When 
shall I come, so as to be the least trouble, Miss 
Wales?” 

They arranged an hour, and then Betty 
asked Eugenia, as a great favor, to help her 
make tea for Madeline and the Cakes, because 
Bridget and Nora had both gone to a wedding, 
and their long talk had made her late with 
the preparations. And by the time the sand- 
wiches were made, the lemons sliced, and the 
tea served, Eugenia^s face looked merely in- 
terestingly pale and care-worn, and she was 
planning her Sugar Cooky costume with 
positive enthusiasm. 

Of course, Mr. Thayer^s party was a grand 
success. Had any party of Madeline's plan- 
ning ever been otherwise? First the little 
Stockings hopped merrily on to the stage that 
Mr. Thayer had had built at one end of the 
big social hall on the top floor of the factory. 
Hopping was their only means of locomotion, 
for each of them was tied securely into a 
mammoth stocking, its toe stuffed with paper 
to give it the proper shape, and its top gath- 
ered around the neck of its small occupant, 


174 BETTT WALES & CO. 

whose head peered inquiringly out above. 
There was a Mother-Stocking, a Father-Stock- 
ing, a Good-Little- Willy-Stocking, and a Bad- 
Little-Billy one ; there was a fireplace, and a 
Santa Claus, who, being a jolly fellow, re- 
lented even toward Bad-Little-Billy, and 
loaded the whole family with comical gifts — 
for in Stocking Land Santa Claus is not the 
mysterious, secretive apparition we know of, 
but a friendly visitor, who slaps you familiarly 
on the back and lets you come up the chimney 
and pat the reindeer. The frantic race of 
Billy and Willy Stocking to get up the chim- 
ney with their costumes intact ended the 
Stockings^ performance, and left the audience 
tearful with mirth. 

Then the Cakes appeared. Sponge Cake 
led the procession, in a corn-colored gown 
trimmed elaborately with fringes of tiny 
sponges. She wore a festoon of sponges in 
her hair, and carried before her a sort of baton 
with the biggest sponge you could imagine 
stuck on the end of it. After her came Choc- 
olate Cake, with ruffles of brown and white, 
and a necklace and bracelets made of choco- 
late candies. Next came Bride’s Cake, all in 


BETTT WALES & CO. 175 

white, with a veil and orange blossoms, and 
Wedding Cake, with garlands of raisins, and 
wedding bells that tinkled when she moved. 
Devihs Cake, adorned with all the little red 
devils that could be found on the Harding 
campus — relics of a fad that had prevailed in 
Betty’s senior year — drove a regiment of Sugar 
Cookies before her — yellow-haired girls, each 
carrying a huge cooky, whose framework was 
a hoop, plentifully besprinkled with a glitter- 
ing sugary paste. Last of all came the Dough- 
nuts, very big and beautifully browned, worn 
like life-preservers around the shoulders of 
their representatives. The Cakes sang and 
discussed their respective merits. The Sugar 
Cookies, being challenged to show what they 
could do, had a hoop-rolling, in the course of 
which all the sugar fell off them. Then the 
Twelfth Night Bakers came in, in white caps 
and long white aprons, and the Sugar Cook- 
ies, no longer sugared, reproached their ma- 
kers, and were placated with wonderful new 
Twelfth Night decorations in the shape of 
toys, birds, and flowers. 

Finally the Bakers produced a huge cake, 
and, served by the plebeian Doughnuts, sat 


176 BETTT WALES & CO, 

down to eat it. Hidden in it were a bean, 
a pea, and a clove, and the three Bakers who 
were lucky enough to find these Twelfth 
Night emblems in their portions of cake 
had the privilege of naming the King and 
Queen of Revels, and the Twelfth Night 
Jester. 

The King and Queen had really been 
chosen beforehand from the mill hands, and 
they had nothing to do but sit on gilt thrones 
and look imposing, while the Jester, a queer 
freshman who was wonderful at sleight-of- 
hand tricks, gave a performance in which 
cakes and stockings replaced the conventional 
rabbits and eggs. 

It was all absurd and inconsequent and cer- 
tainly quite different from the usual mill 
party, even to the way the refreshments were 
served, for the Cakes moved about among 
the audience carrying trays of ices, and the 
Bakers peddled their wares in the shape of 
little cup-cakes whose fantastic decorations 
rivaled those of the live Cakes in variety and 
grotesqueness. 

Shure an' they ain't fit fur civilized humans 
to ate at all," Bridget had announced, as she 


BETTT WALES & CO. 177 

surveyed them indignantly, an^ iVs a shame- 
fu' waste of good material, not countin' me 
slavin' two days solid on 'em." 

But Betty had consoled her with explana- 
tions about the foreignness " of the mill peo- 
ple, and their consequent love for queer 
things. Betty felt capable of consoling any- 
body that day. She fairly danced as she 
packed the cakes on the afternoon of the 
party, and her infectious gaiety in the even- 
ing was one of the best reasons why every- 
thing went off so well. 

It has been just lovely, girls," she said to the 
group of Cakes who crowded around her begging 
her to tell them how they looked and whether 
they had done their dance well. “ Those lit- 
tle Italian girls in the front row told me they 
never knew a party could be so beautiful, and 
their mothers almost cried when they thanked 
Mr. Thayer. We've had lots of fun ourselves, 
but the best of it is that we've given them a 
good time they'll remember as long as they 
live." 

But Betty had a special reason for feeling 
happy. For two letters had come in her 
morning mail. The one she opened first was 


178 BETTT WALES & CO. 

directed in the smallest sister^s round, pains- 
taking hand. 

Darlingest Betty, she began, ‘^mother 
says I may come to see you. She said I could 
go to see Nan. I love Nan, but I am your 
compiny. A person who is compiny always 
comes to see you. I will be a good girl and al- 
ways run away when you are busy. 

Dorothy.” 

The dear little midget,” laughed Betty, 
and tossed the letter to Madeline. She 
wanted to help with the tea-room, so Will told 
her she could be a silent partner — the com- 
pany in the firm. And now she wants to 
come and see me because she^s my ^ compiny.^ ” 
“ She says she is coming,” Madeline cor- 
rected her. Is that her own idea, or is she 
really going to make us a visit? ” 

I don’t know.” Betty was deep in her 
mother’s letter. Why — oh, dear ! Father is 
going away off to Mexico, and he’s going to 
take mother with him ! He may have to stay 
all the rest of the winter. It’s some land he’s 
going to see about, and he hates to go alone. 
He and mother are such old lovers I oh, and 


BETTT WALES & CO. 179 

he hasn’t been very well, and he hates to go 
alone, and mother can’t bear to have him. 
He says that her fare now will cost less than a 
doctor later, and she can just as well board 
down there as in Cleveland, if I can manage 
Dorothy.” 

“Well, you can, can’t you?” inquired 
Madeline placidly. 

“ I can, can I ? ” Betty’s eyes sparkled. 
“ It’s plain, Madeline Ayres, that you’re an 
only child. You haven’t the least idea how it 
feels to get a letter like this from that cute 
youngster. Mother says they tried to make 
her go to Nan’s school, but she wouldn’t come 
to any one but me. Can I manage ? I can 
manage anything with a dear little sister to 
play with. Oh, Madeline, I’ve been home- 
sick, and I never knew it till now ! ” 

“ That’s a good brand of homesickness to 
cultivate,” laughed Madeline. “ She’ll have 
to go to school here, won’t she? ” 

Betty nodded. “ Mother says she can go to 
the public schools in a nice little town like 
this, but I shan’t have her. I’ve saved lots 
out of my salary and my share of the gift- 
room profits, and I shall pay her tuition at 


i8o BETTT WALES & CO. 


Miss Dick^s. She can prepare for college 
thoroughly there. And some day, if we keep 
on having such good luck at the Tally-ho, I 
can help put her through Harding. WonT 
that be perfectly splendid, Madeline Ayres ? ” 


CHAPTER XI 


THE ADVENT OF THE PLOSHKIN 

If you are busy enough, you usually don^t 
discover that you are homesick — especially if, 
whenever you do take time to think of your 
own private affairs, you can run to the 
calendar to count the days before the coming 
of the smallest sister. And between work 
and fun, Betty and Madeline were very busy 
indeed. 

First ^there was Christmas dinner at Mary’s 
— as gay and lively as all Mary’s hospitalities. 
Next day there was a select lunch party at the 
Tally-ho, at which Mary was the only guest, 
and at the end of which, with much pomp 
and ceremony, she was officially designated 
the One and Only Perfect Patron, and initiated 
with the rite of the Secret Drawer. 

You’re not opening that the way you did 
before, Madeline,” Betty declared, as the three 
bent their heads together over the desk, while 
Madeline pressed one after another of the tiny, 
hidden springs. 


181 


i 82 BETTT wales & CO. 


** Oh, yes, I am,” Madeline assured her. 
** There couldn’t be but one way to open it. 
First you press this spring and take out this 
drawer ; then you press another spring in the 
side wall, and out flies your secret compart- 
ment.” 

You did at least two more things before,” 
insisted Betty. 

Well, the woman I bought the desk of 
thought one push would do it all,” Madeline 
reminded her. Before long we may discover 
the one magic touch.” 

** Oh, I hope not,” sighed Mary rapturously. 
“ I like to have it complicated, so that you 
forget exactly how it goes between times, and 
have to fuss and fumble around. Now please 
shut it and let me And it again all by myself.” 

“ No, that is the second rite,” Madeline told 
her severely. Come back in a week, a day, 
and an hour. Meditate, meanwhile, on the 
Rules for the Perfect Patron, and concoct at 
least one beautiful new feature for the tea- 
shop. Then, and not till then, are you per- 
mitted to touch these mystic springs. For to- 
day all is flnished, and your long-sufiering 
husband is waiting sadly for his tea.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 183 

Though it was vacation time, the Tally-ho 
Tea-Shop found plenty of patrons. Besides 
Mr. Thayer, there were all the left-over girls, 
who, having discovered that they could have 
a good time if they kept together, organized 
breakfast and lunch parties and afternoon tea- 
drinkings, with skating, snow-shoeing, and 
sliding expeditions for appetizers between 
times. Betty and Eugenia had to seek the 
privacy of the loft for their lessons, while 
Madeline spread her Literary Career, in the 
shape of a heterogeneous litter of half-finished 
stories, over Betty^s desk, and good-naturedly 
combined the duties of cashier and manager 
with the toils of authorship. The best thing 
about a Literary Career, she confided to Mr. 
Thayer, when he came in one day for his tea, 
is that you can pursue it in any reasonably 
quiet corner. 

Who publishes your things ? ’’ Mr. Thayer 
inquired interestedly. I must read them.^^ 

And Madeline was forced to admit that so 
far she had no publishers. But I^m going 
to keep on till I do,” she declared hopefully. 
** I could learn to paint easier, I know, because 
that runs in the family, but I don^t want to. 


i 84 BETTT wales & CO, 

I'm bound to write, and I'll keep at it until I 
succeed." 

'‘And I'll back you to make a big hit," 
Mr. Thayer declared solemnly. “Anybody 
that could write those Cake songs, and that 

Stocking Act By the way, please ask 

the real cashier to send me a bill for my 
party." 

Madeline promised, and wasted the next 
hour considering whether she should spend 
her share of the December profits for a trip to 
Bohemia, New York, or a set of Dickens in 
morocco bindings. The worst thing about a 
Literary Career is the ease with which one's 
mind wanders away from it. 

Eugenia Ford cheered up a little over the 
Pageant of the Cakes, but when that was done 
with she relapsed into her former state of 
tearful melancholy. She was too busy to join 
in the fun the other girls were having, and 
besides, as she explained carefully to Betty, 
they weren't any of them in her crowd. Betty 
received this statement in discreet silence. 
She believed in taking things one at a time, 
and Eugenia's complete ignorance of the his- 
tory of early English literature, her hopeless 


BETTT WALES & CO: 185 

wonder at the intricacies of geometrical 
figures, and her perfectly appalling ideas 
about the principles of exposition, as ex- 
hibited in her themes, were certainly all that 
could be attended to in a two weeks’ vacation. 
Betty had been good ” in solid geometry ; 
she could glean the main facts of the literary 
history from the text-book and the notes that 
Eugenia had thoughtfully borrowed from a 
friend who was a Lit. shark ” ; the themes 
she could easily see were poor enough to se- 
cure their author a warning, but what the 
exact trouble was she could not tell. 

I don’t believe I could do any better my- 
self,” Betty confided to Madeline. '' Please 
tell me what to tell her.” 

Madeline read through a few of Eugenia’s 
stupid little efforts, and called Betty’s atten- 
tion to the marks in blue pencil at the end. 

^ No sequence of thought, no progressive 
logic, no relevant detail.’ That’s the trouble 
with them all. ‘ Poor paragraphing ; no de- 
velopment of the central idea.’ Her instructor 
gave her plenty of hints, but she blissfully 
ignored them all.” 

“ She didn’t understand them, I suppose,” 


i86 BETTT IFALES & CO. 


Betty defended Eugenia. “ Anyway I don't, 
and you've got to explain till I do, Madeline 
Ayres. I'm sorry to bother so, but I've got 
her on my hands, and she shan't be flunked 
in composition if I can help it." 

“ All right," laughed Madeline. ** Now 
just what is it that you don't under- 
stand ? " 

At the end of an hour's careful explanation 
Betty declared that she thought she could 
coach Eugenia in theme-work. You might 
have explained straight to her instead of to 
me," she added, only she cries such a lot. 
It's awfully embarrassing, until you get used 
to it, to have to talk to a fountain." 

But if Eugenia wept copiously, she listened 
attentively, and worked hard, and gradually 
both she and Betty were conscious that their 
efforts were telling. Betty was more relieved, 
if possible, than Eugenia. 

You've certainly improved a heap in 
geometry," she told her pupil, toward the 
end of the second week. And you know 
that table of dates in * Lit.,' and your themes 
are a speck better. Your regular tutor will 
have to put most of her time on those." 


BETTT WALES & CO. 187 

My regular tutor I Eugenia's tone was 
terror-stricken. ** Oh, Miss Wales, I want to 
keep on with you, of course." 

No, you don't want anything of the kind," 
Betty assured her emphatically. I was 
second choice, remember, and besides, I don't 
do tutoring. I only did it through vacation 
to oblige you and Miss Ferris, but just as soon 

as she gets back and the tutor, and " Betty 

paused. Eugenia had not cried for three 
days, but now she was winking hard. Well, 
we'll talk it over with Miss Ferris," Betty told 
her hastily. I really must go now. I've 
got to take the two-fifteen to the Junction to 
meet my little sister." 

Eugenia's face softened and brightened 
suddenly. Is she really little?" she de- 
manded. Because I had — I mean I love 
little girls." 

*‘Yes, she's really little," Betty laughed. 
** She's eleven and very small for her age." 

‘‘ Mine would have been " began Eu- 

genia, and stopped again, the soft; sweet look 
still in her eyes. 

‘‘ You wouldn't care to come and meet her 
too ? " Betty asked hesitatingly. Madeline 


i88 BETTT WALES & CO. 


was going with me, but some girls have en- 
gaged tea here, so she's staying to see to it." 

I should perfectly love to," declared Eu- 
genia enthusiastically. “ I'll be company for 
you on the way down, but on the way back 
I'll sit in another seat and — and do theme 
outlines. It’s lovely of you to ask me, Miss 
Wales." 

But Eugenia did no theme outlines that 
afternoon. The smallest sister was a very 
friendly little person. She flew into Betty's 
arms — Will, who had brought her, was going 
straight to Boston on business for Cousin Joe 
— and having hugged and been hugged 'most 
to pieces " she turned to Eugenia, held up her 
face for a kiss, and snuggled confldingly up to 
her new friend while Betty went to see about 
the baggage, and later sat in the car with one 
arm around Betty and the other around Eu- 
genia. 

Eugenia smiled rapturously at Betty. " It 
feels so good. You see I had a little sister, 
Miss Wales, and she — I miss her every day of 
my life. May I please come and play with 
yours sometimes? " 

Betty assured her that she might come 


BETTT WALES & CO. 189 

whenever she pleased, smiling to herself as 
she remembered how she had meant to warn 
little Dorothy that girls like Eugenia Ford 
were too busy to bother with smallest 
sisters. 

It seemed as if nobody was too busy to 
amuse Dorothy. Miss Dick^s school did not 
open until a week after Harding, and by 
that time the smallest sister had become a 
regular — if very restless — feature of the Tal- 
ly-ho Tea-Shop. Polly and Georgia and Lucile 
and the fluffy-haired Dutton twin had each 
had her to dinner on the campus, and the 
straight-haired twin, who was a basket-ball 
fiend, had secured her as mascot for the sopho- 
more team, thereby plunging Eugenia, who 
took no particular interest in basket-ball and 
so had not thought of the freshman mascot, 
into the depths of woe. But no amount of 
flattering attention could supplant Eugenia 
in Dorothy^s affections. Eugenia knew how 
to talk to little girls. She had a way of ap- 
pearing when Betty was busy and Dorothy 
was thinking hard of mother. Her stories 
were almost as nice as Madeline's, and she 
was never too busy to tell one. It soon got 


190 BETTT WALES & CO. 

to be a regular thing for her to slip down 
from the campus in the dusk of the afternoon, 
when Betty was always busiest in the tea- 
room, and it was too cold and dark for a little 
girl to want to play outdoors by herself. 
That was Dorothy's lonesome time — or it 
would have been, but for Eugenia. 

First Eugenia told true stories " of dolls 
and canary birds that she had had when she 
was little, and of a tame toad that lived under 
the door-step at home. Then she invented 
the ploshkin, and after that she had to tell 
how to catch and kill a ploshkin every night 
for two weeks. 

^‘Do you know how to catch and kill a 
ploshkin?" the story began, and the answer 
to that was an anxious “ No," even after you 
% knew quite well, by heart, how the deed was 
done. 

, The ploshkin is a sad little soul," Eugenia 

went on solemnly, and it lives in the middle 
j?f the bay." 

What bay ? " demanded Dorothy. 

The bay of the ploshkin, of course. It 
lurks in the deep round hole that you see ex- 
actly in the middle of the bay. So you must 



TRUE STORIES OF DOLLS 






S' - 

<* 


t 

/ 


« 




I . 


T 







. f 


« 

<. 





I* 


V . 



s 














# ^ 

W 




ir , 



; 





, I 

t , 


i 


I. 

9 

s/ 


4 

\ 



\ ^ '■ 

^ .^ 1 ' 




t 

t 




« 

S 


s 


I 


’.' V 


\f 


K 






« 



« 

9 


% 




\ 



» 


} 



A 



JV'^ 

. ' I. ^ r^f % 

<'" ' ^ 'V 

^^ . 


p 

y 


# • 


/ . 


ij 


•-» ■ 

(k 


t* 

I 

t • 

< k 

j 

i .. 


I * 


4 • 

•l, 




S •' 


^ 


I 



«- 






.V 


% 






p 


• • 

f,. 





BETTT WALES & CO. 191 

row out there in a skiff, taking with you a 
pail of mortar/^ 

What a funny thing to take,” giggled 
Dorothy each time. 

“ The only thing,” Eugenia announce< s ,■ 
verely. “ And when the skiff is exact! 
the centre of the bay you must fast die 
prow to the top of a wave, with a pink shoe- 
string.” 

Who ever heard of a pink shoe-string?” 
demanded Dorothy gleefully. 

You have — now,” Eugenia told her. 
** Where was I ? Oh, yes, tie the prow to the 
top of a wave with a pink shoe-string, and 
then you must wait and wait and wait and 
wait, till by and by the ploshkin will come 
up to drink.” 

** I should think he could drink enough 
down where he was. DonT you mean come 
up to breathe ? ” inquired Dorothy acutely. 

“ I mean come up to drink. The ploshkin 
has an ingrowing face and he drinks up, not 
down. Now shall I go on with the story ? ” 

Please,” begged Dorothy. 

** Well, when he comes up with a flip of his 
tail, you must jump for the pail of mortar and 


192 BETTT WALES & CO, 

sprinkle it on him, and he’ll be so mortified 
that he’ll die of mortification.” 

And must you hold him by the tail? 
You said ^ catch and kill,’ ” Dorothy re- 
minded her. 

Eugenia nodded. But it’s never been 
done yet. The tail is prickly, you see, and 
slippery between the pricks, and the pink 
shoe-string gets in your eyes.” 

^^How could it?” demanded Dorothy. 

It’s enchanted,” Eugenia assured her with 
the air of finality that little girls love. And 
so this is how you catch and kill a plosh- 
kin.” 

Could you please make me a picture of a 
ploshkin ? ” asked Dorothy on the third night 
of the story. 

I can’t draw pictures, dear, but Miss Ayres 
will, I’m sure,” Eugenia told her, and that 
was how Madeline heard of the ploshkin, and 
fell so in love with its name, its ingrowing 
face, and its prickly, slippery tail, that she 
spent a whole morning making sketches of it, 
when she should have been pursuing her Lit- 
erary Career. 

Dorothy displayed the sketches to all her 


BETTT WALES & CO, 193 

friends, and the exact appearance of the plosh- 
kin began to be vigorously discussed in college 
circles, and pictures of it adorned the fly-leaves 
of note-books and the margins of corrected 
themes. The fluffy-haired Dutton twin, who 
took modeling, even made a comical little 
clay ploshkin and presented it to Dorothy, 
who thanked her and tactfully refrained from 
mentioning that she had forgotten the prickly 
tail. But Madeline was not so reticent, and 
she and the Dutton twin together modeled 
another figure that made Dorothy fairly dance 
with delight. It had, besides the prickly tail, 
one wing, held coquettishly before its “ in- 
growing face,” which was rather like a fishes, 
except for a “ sunny Jim ” smile around the 
mouth ; and there was something inexplicably 
fascinating about the grotesque huddle of its 
posture. 

“ That’s a real touch of genius — that makes 
you feel like laughing whenever you look at 
it,” explained the Dutton twin triumphantly, 
“ but it won’t help me any if I cut again in 
Elocution. Good-bye,” and she was ofi*, sing- 
ing, “ Midyears are coming, tra-la, tra-la,” with 
a joyous disregard for time and tune. 


194 BETTT WALES & CO. 

While the others were still admiring the 
new ploshkin Mary Brooks appeared. 

It’s two weeks, and two days, less two 
hours,” she explained, when she had kissed 
Dorothy and examined the ploshkin. I 
couldn’t come at the proper time, because my 
Uncle Marcellus has been to visit us — the one 
that gave us the desert island for a wedding 
gift, you know.” Mary sighed deeply. A 
desert island is a lovely thing to own, but 
when it involves an Uncle Marcellus I’d ad- 
vise anybody to think twice. Well, he’s gone 
at last and here I am, to open the drawer.” 

Why didn’t you bring your Uncle Mar- 
cellus in to lunch ? ” demanded Madeline se- 
verely. You haven’t been any kind of a 
patron lately. And where’s your new feature 
for the shop that I told you to think up? 
You’re trying to shirk your responsibilities, 
little Mary.” i 

Uncle Marcellus,” said Mary calmly, is 
a vegetarian with dyspepsia. Of course I 
didn’t bring him in here to find fault with 
everything. New rule for the Perfect Patron : 
Keep the dyspeptic vegetarian away from the 
Tea-Room. As for features, I’d thought of 


BETTT WALES & CO. 195 

something. Let me see — oh, — why, of course I 
Make ploshkins.’^ Mary smiled her beamish 
smile at the two proprietors. 

“ Now, Mary, you thought that up on the 
spur of the minute,” began Madeline. It’s 
not fair ” 

Nonsense,” Mary denounced her affably. 

You’re always preaching the advantage of 
impromptu inspirations.” 

But why should we make ploshkins ? ” 
demanded Betty. 

Why indeed ? ” Mary beamed. Have 
you forgotten the day when the Gibson girl 
hung over every desk on the Harding campus? 
And after that came the Winged Victory. 
Last year it was red devils, wasn’t it? Well, 
now it shall be ploshkins. The Harding girl 
must have her little idol, and the Tally-ho 
Tea-Shop may as well have the Harding girl’s 
money.” 

But they’d take ages to make,” objected 
Madeline. '' Fluffy and I spent two long and 
weary afternoons on this one.” 

'' Don’t be so literal, child,” advised Mary. 

Have them made, I mean, of course. Get 
one of those plaster statuette places in New 


196 BETTT WALES & CO. 

York to turn them off for you. Let me see — 
three — five — order five hundred. Three hun- 
dred girls will rush to buy them, and two 
hundred out of the three will get that wing 
broken off before June and sorrowfully buy 
another.^^ Mary smiled blandly. “ I ought 
to have been the wife of a shopkeeper, 
oughtn’t I? Now may I play with your 
secret drawer?” 

Being of a fickle disposition, Mary had no 
sooner received full and free permission to 
play with the drawer whenever she liked, 
than the secret springs lost their tremendous 
attraction for her. She had just got the 
drawer open when Georgia Ames appeared 
and Mary promptly deserted her new play- 
thing to secure Georgia’s advance order for 
ploshkins, and then to help her concoct a 
beautiful little notice about them to be circu- 
lated discreetly through the college. 

Zoology classes. Attention I ” it ran. The 
ploshkin is as instructive as the grasshopper, 
and you should lose no time in observing its 
anatomy. To be had, without the trouble of 
catching it in the Bay, at the Tally-ho Tea- 
Shop. Order early.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 197 

The name and that senseless touch about 
the Bay will get them/^ Mary declared, and 
went home to tell George Garrison Hinsdale 
all about it. So the secret drawer stood open 
all day long — for Betty, who would have no- 
ticed it, had had an exasperating struggle 
with the stove, on top of a particularly irrita- 
ting time over the carriage lamps, and went 
home early with a headache, leaving a mes- 
sage for Eugenia, who still insisted upon com- 
ing for lessons. Madeline found the drawer, 
when she was straightening up the tea-room 
for the night, and shut it in hot haste. For 
what is the use of having a secret drawer at 
all if you leave it wide open all day for every 
one to look at ? 


CHAPTER XII 


A TRAGIC DISAPPEARANCE 

“ I THINK we ought to send for Babbie/^ de- 
clared Madeline Ayres a day or two later. 

To talk ploshkin ? asked Betty. The 
ploshkin project was still, to Mary^s great dis- 
gust, being discussed pro and con. 

Yes,” assented Madeline, and to have a 
say about our keeping the tea-room open for 
dinners. Also, and most important of all, to 
save Young-Man-0 ver-the-Fence from an early 
grave.” 

Oh, yes, we ought to decide right away 
about the bill for his party,” agreed Betty in- 
nocently. At least, we have decided, haven’t 
we, that it was too much fun to take pay for ? 
But we ought to let him know.” 

Yes, we undoubtedly ought, but Babbie 
hasn’t a thing to do with that party,” Made- 
line reminded her. 

That’s so. Then what ” Betty had a 

sudden inkling of Madeline’s meaning. Do 
you think he’s really interested in Babbie?” 

198 


BETTT WALES & CO. 199 

she demanded. “ Because Babbie doesn^t like 
him, and she perfectly hates having men fall, 
in love with her.’' 

She says she does, you mean,” corrected 
Madeline, and perhaps she even thinks she 
does. But she doesn’t. No girl does, if the 
man is worth anything. I like Young-Man- 
Over-the-Fence myself, probably because he’s 
so optimistic about my literary ability, and 
I’m sorry I queered him with Babbie by my 
premature announcement of his devotion. I 
don’t know how I can help matters now, 
though.” 

Betty laughed. “ He’ll help them himself, 
if he wants to, I guess. He isn’t the kind to 
give up easily. The very reason Babbie was 
prejudiced against him was because of his de- 
termined chin. I’ll make out his bill for the 
food and the other expenses right now, before 
I forget it.” 

When Mr. Thay’er came in for his tea that 
afternoon and was informed of the Tally-ho’s 
decision, he objected vigorously. 

“ Suppose those girls from the college did 
help you a little,” he said. Give them a 
spread, if you like, to square things up, and 


200 BETTT WALES & CO. 


take my check for yourselves. You really 
must, you know.^^ 

Betty explained that it had been only fun 
for everybody, and Madeline presented her 
plan for a club-house. 

Mr. Thayer smiled sorrowfully. Tve 
thought of that, and I want them to have 
one ; but if they have a club-house they must 
have clubs. They must have clubs anyway, 
for do you know — his voice took on a tragic 
intensity — “ not much over half of them can 
read and write. Last month I got a law 
passed that prohibits their working in this 
state unless they can read simple English and 
write little things like their own names, and 
now I find there are no evening schools in 
this benighted town, and if there were, what 
would old men and grown women do in a 
regular evening school ? ” 

“ Was that the law your father didn't 
like?" asked Betty. 

Mr. Thayer nodded gloomily. It's a per- 
fectly good law, but it's making me no end of 
trouble. Miss Wales, I've noticed that you 
always seem to come to the rescue of despair- 
ing mortals. Can't you suggest something ? " 


BETTT WALES & CO. 201 


Betty shook her head thoughtfully. In- 
stead of coming to any one’s rescue she had 
got to dismiss her extra waitresses again. No- 
body had time for lunches and teas just be- 
fore midyears, and even if the tea-shop should 
decide to serve dinners a little later, she 
might be able, with the longer hours, to get 
on without extra help. Then she remem- 
bered something funny that had come in her 
morning mail. 

I must be queer,” she declared, “ because 
people — despairing mortals — want me to do 
such funny things for them. This morning 
I had a letter from a father whose daughter 
isn’t popular in college, wanting me to show 
her how to make friends. And I never even 
heard of the girl before ! ” 

“ Well, you’ll do it,” Mr. Thayer declared, 
preparing to take his leave, “ and you’ll help 
me out somehow, too. I’ve got three months’ 
grace from the factory commission, before my 
employees must begin to attend school. Mean- 
while I shall put an architect to work on 
plans for the club-house you’ve compelled me 
to build by your hundred dollar donation. 
And by building the club-house I put you 


202 BETTT WALES & CO, 


under obligations to help me with the clubs. 
That^s even. Good-bye.’^ 

We’ve gotten ourselves into a lovely fix 
now,” said Betty solemnly, staring after him. 

“ You have, please say,” Madeline corrected. 

He doesn’t expect me to do anything about 
his old clubs, after the way I piled the Stock- 
ings off on Babbie.” 

1 should love it if I had time,” sighed 
Betty. It’s the only kind of teaching I 
know enough to do, just the plain three R’s, 
— and you could feel as if your work counted 
for something, when they must learn and 
can’t in any other way.” 

^^It would be splendid practice,” added 
Madeline. “ I should almost think some of 
the college girls who are going to teach might 
like to take classes a night or two each week.” 

Betty gave a little cry of pleased assent. 
“ Why, of course ! Why didn’t you think of 
that when he was here, Madeline? I know 
they’d like it, and girls who don’t mean to 
teach would, too — Fluffy Dutton and Georgia 
and their kind. They’d like the queerness 
of it.” 

I might even take a class myself,” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 203 

Madeline conceded, ** if I were allowed to 
choose my pupils. I hereby speak for my 
fascinating little Italian boy.’^ 

** It will be a fine chance to practice modern 
languages, too,” cried Betty eagerly. “ Some 
girls will like it for that. But the classes 
wouldn^t get on very fast, studying only a 
night a week ; and every night would be a 
good deal to give. Oh, Madeline, I know 
what I He could hire some girls for the big 
stupid classes that would have to come several 
nights a week, and that would help with the 
Student's Aid work.” 

You're worrying about those waitresses 
again,” said Madeline accusingly. “ I believe 
you care more about them than you do about 
tea-room profits.” 

** You don't really think that, do you, 
Madeline ? ” demanded Betty solemnly, be- 
cause the tea-room pays me for looking out 
for its profits, and if I didn't put that ahead 
of anything else, I shouldn't be honest.” 

Of course I don't think it,” Madeline told 
her quickly, with a loving little hug. You're 
altogether ^too honest, and you work lots 
harder than you ought to. If we decide to 


204 BETTT WALES & CO. 

serve dinners, I shall insist on your having 
an assistant. And that will be more help for 
the Student’s Aid,” she added mockingly, and 
went off to Dramatic Club’s dress rehearsal of 
the Masque of the Twelfth Night Cakes. 

A few moments later the carriage lamp 
above Betty’s desk flickered uncertainly and 
grew dim. 

Oh, dear, I never fllled one lamp this morn- 
ing I ” sighed Betty. The stove and the 
lamps were the hardest things in her winter’s 
experience. Bridget had announced, soon 
after her arrival, that she couldn’t be both- 
ered wid ony ile lamps,” and Nora had re- 
marked pointedly that nowadays you needn’t 
expect any girl to fuss with those old-fash- 
ioned ways of lighting. So Betty, valuing 
Bridget and Nora too highly to take any 
risks, had quietly assumed the care of the 
lamps and later of the stove. She didn’t dare 
to carry a light near the kerosene can, and in 
groping her way to it she tore her sleeve on a 
nail and got a sliver in her Anger. She had 
pinned together the tear and taken out the 
sliver, and she was sitting by the open fire, 
trying to finish up the repairs by smoothing 


BEirr WALES & CO, 205 

out her ruffled temper, when Eugenia Ford 
appeared, looking provokingly spick-and-span 
and elegant in new furs that her father had 
just sent her. 

He knew he was mean to keep me here 
over Christmas,’^ said Eugenia, when she had 
duly exhibited her treasures. Is your head- 
ache all gone, Miss Wales? ” 

Betty laughed. “ I’d forgotten that I ever 
had one. That was two days ago, wasn’t it ? 
I was sorry to make you miss a lesson.” 

Oh, it didn’t matter,” Eugenia said easily. 
She was in a very complacent mood to-day. 

I told Miss Ayres that it didn’t matter. I’ve 
had two ^ very goods ’ said to me in geometry 
recitations this week, and I wasn’t sat upon 
in Lit. to-day. That’s the most of a compli- 
ment you can hope for in Lit. unless you’re a 
perfect wizard.” 

Well, don’t get careless and let things go,” 
Betty warned her solemnly. And when 
you’re cramming, if you find one single little 
thing that you don’t understand, you’d better 
come and let me explain about it.” Betty 
flushed uncomfortably. The financial side of 
such affairs she found very embarrassing. 


2o6 BETTT PFALES & CO. 


It won’t be anything extra ; it will just be a 
favor to me. I shall feel so nervous until I 
know you’re through all right.” 

Eugenia nodded brusquely. I suppose 
they’re always dreadfully down on people 
who’ve had warnings, but I guess I shall get 
along.” She seemed restless and ill at ease 
somehow, saying almost nothing, answering 
Betty’s questions at random, not even notic- 
ing the ploshkin that she had gone into rap- 
tures over when she had seen it before, or in- 
quiring for little Dorothy, as she did invari- 
ably whenever she came in. 

“ She’s probably worried to death and too 
proud to let me see it,” Betty decided ; but 
that was an absurd supposition, considering all 
the tears that Eugenia had taken small pains 
to dissemble. Finally it came out. 

'' I must be going,” Eugenia announced at 
last with sudden briskness. ** I only stopped 
to inquire for your headache. Oh, yes — and 
I presume I’d better take my theme, because 
it’s due to-morrow morning, and I may not 
be down this way again. Did you read it. Miss 
Wales?” 

Betty’s brow puckered in perplexity. Your 


BETrr WALES & CO. 207 

theme ? Were you to have one ready for the 
other day ? I thought it was only the last 
six propositions in geometry that we were 
going over together. Madeline didn’t give 
me any theme.” 

“ No,” explained Eugenia. I didn’t tell 
her anything about it. I just dropped it on 
your desk. I thought you’d notice it. and 
read it, and if you found anything fearfully 
wrong, I could fix it over.” 

But I don’t understand what theme it 
was. We went over all those that I assigned ; 
and you revised them, and then we went over 
them again.” 

This was my * final,’ ” explained Eugenia. 

Your ^ final ’ ! ” Betty’s tone was full of 
dismay. But I wasn’t to see that, Eugenia. 
That’s to be entirely your own work, like all 
the themes you handed in before you were 
warned. Don’t you remember I told you 
how Miss Raymond called a meeting of Eng- 
lish tutors to explain that they were to give 
no help of any kind on the ‘ final ’ theme ; 
and she announced it in classes too, didn’t 
she?” 

Oh, yes, if you take it that way ” — Eu- 


2o8 BETTT wales & CO. 


genia assumed an air of injured innocence. 
“ Most of the tutors don’t. You see, Miss 
Wales, some of the girls are worried to death 
and bother their tutors for ideas and pointers 
until the poor things just about write their 
freshmen’s themes to get rid of them. Of 
course they won’t — or they oughtn’t to — do 
that with the ‘ final.’ That’s the help Miss 
Raymond meant.” 

So is reading it over and making sugges- 
tions giving help,” Betty objected. ^‘She 
meant help of any kind — or at least that was 
what she said.” 

Eugenia shrugged her shoulders. “ All 
right,” she said. “ There’s no harm done, as 
long as you haven’t even seen the old thing. 
It’s due to-morrow anyway, and all I ex- 
pected you to tell me was little things like 
misspelled words or slips of the pen. I 
couldn’t copy it all over to-night possibly.” 

Betty always tried to put the best construc- 
tion on actions that didn’t seem to her quite 
honorable. Oh, if that’s all you wanted, 
why I don’t suppose any one would object. 
But it’s better to keep exactly to Miss Ray- 
mond’s regulations, don’t you think so? If 


BETTT WALES & CO. 209 

you try hard, you can find little things like 
misspelled words for yourself. You will go 
over it carefully, won’t you?” Betty added 
earnestly. “ I heard of a girl once who was 
conditioned on account of bad spelling. That 
would be a perfect shame, after all the time 
we’ve spent studying really hard things like 
outlines.” 

While she talked, Betty was looking 
through her pigeonholes, where neat little 
piles of bills and memoranda for the different 
parts of the tea-room business were kept. 
After one week of chaos she had decided that 
order was the first law of business ; and since 
then her desk had been a model of neatness 
and system. 

Where did you say you left the theme, 
Eugenia ? ” she asked after a minute, looking 
up from her search. 

Right out on top,” explained Eugenia. 

Isn’t it there ? Seems to me a drawer was 
open. Maybe it got slipped in by mistake 
with something else, when the drawer was 
shut.” 

Betty opened every drawer and looked 
carefully through the contents. Then she 


210 BETTT WALES & CO. 


went through the pigeonholes again, while 
Eugenia waited, anxiety fast taking the place 
of her serene assurance. 

“ It^s not here,^^ Betty announced at last. 
** Are you perfectly sure you left it, Eugenia ? ” 

“ Perfectly. You see,” Eugenia, being 
thoroughly frightened, became, according to 
her custom, perfectly frank and open. “ You 
see I knew you’d think it was cheating to 
help on a ‘ final,’ no matter if all — well, 
some,” she amended hastily, of the regular 
tutors do it. So I folded it up and laid it on 
your desk where I thought you’d naturally 
pick it up to see what it was. And after 
you’d begun it, I thought you’d finish out of 
curiosity, because you’re so interested in my 
not fiunking. And if you thought it was a 
fright I just hoped you wouldn’t be able to 
resist bringing it to me to revise. I guess it 
wasn’t honest, and I never mean to actually 
cheat,” ended Eugenia, with a feeling for nice 
distinctions, so I’m really and truly glad 
you didn’t find it before. But it must be 
there. Miss Wales. It simply must.” 

“ It isn’t,” Betty answered with decision. 
^‘I’ve looked twice at every single paper.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 211 


** Then somebody has taken it/’ 

Betty considered. You might have 
picked it up yourself, Eugenia, with your 
other things, in a fit of absent-mindedness. 
The maids never touch this desk. The only 
other person who could possibly have moved 
it is Madeline. She was writing here, I 
think, the day you say you left it. She’s up 
on the campus now. You go and hunt 
through your room, and as soon as she comes 
home. I’ll ask her about it.” 

** Suppose we don’t either of us find it?” 
queried Eugenia anxiously. 

Oh, we shall find it,” Betty assured her. 
“ I’m almost sure you took it off.” 

Oh, no, I didn’t, Miss Wales,” declared 
Eugenia. I know I didn’t, but I’ll go and 
look. And if I don’t find it, I shall come 
right back here to see if Miss Ayres has it. 
Oh, just think — what if it’s lost for keeps?” 
Eugenia fastened her sable furs as uncon- 
cernedly as if they had been last year’s style 
and squirrel, and rushed off, her eyes big 
with terror. 

Betty went over the desk again, just to be 
doing something. Just before Madeline ar- 


212 BETTT WALES & CO. 


rived, she remembered the secret drawer. 
The theme was in that, of course I When 
Madeline declared that she hadn’t seen it, and 
that it couldn’t be with her papers, because 
she hadn’t had any on the desk for five days, 
Betty insisted on her opening the secret drawer. 

“ I simply must learn to open it,” she said. 

I knew something would get lost in there, 
and if you were away, I shouldn’t be able to 
get it out. There, Madeline, that’s the way 
you did it the first time you opened it. I 
think I shall remember now. Oh, it isn’t 
there ! I do hope she’s found it herself.” 

But a minute later Eugenia burst in, ar- 
rayed in her roommate’s oldest raincoat, furs 
and complacence alike discarded. “ Have 
you found it? ” she cried. Because I knew 
I shouldn’t, and I didn’t.” 

“ Oh, Eugenia ! No, it isn’t here. Made- 
line, do come and suggest what to do.” 

Madeline was as sympathetic as possible, 
but even her vaunted resourcefulness could 
find no feasible remedy for Eugenia’s plight. 

Ask f6r more time,” she began. 

She won’t give it unless you’ve been 
sick,” Eugenia objected. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 213 

** Go home and write your theme to-night. 
You can do it, with coffee and wet towels. If 
your matron is fussy about lights, come down 
to our house.” 

Oh, I couldn't,” declared Eugenia tragic- 
ally. I can’t hurry on themes. I’m as 
slow as a snail when I try to write sense. I 
spent six evenings on this, outside of copy- 
ing.” 

Then go and explain that you’ve lost it, 
and throw yourself on the lady’s tender 
mercies. Go right away, so she won’t be ir- 
ritated beforehand by all the other regular 
eleventh hour excuses.” 

Eugenia considered. “ I suppose that’s the 
only thing to do. If I hurry I can get there 
before dinner. Between tea and dinner is 
her good-natured time.” Eugenia pulled up 
the raincoat, which was much too long for 
her, and started off. 

Half an hour later she was back again, 
shivering forlornly with the cold and chok- 
ing with tears. 

I told her. I told her exactly how I hap- 
pened to lose it, because she asked me, and I 
never thought how awful it would look. She 


214 BETrr WALES & CO, 

says I^m a cheat, and don^t deserve more 
time. She says she^ll flunk me in the course, 
and she hopes I’ll flunk enough other things 
so I can’t stay in college. Oh, Miss Wales, 
what shall I do ? I told my father I was all 
caught up. He doesn’t know about midyears. 
I guess that wasn’t honest either, to say I was 
caught up before I’d passed the exams. If 
I’m flunked out now I shan’t ever dare go 
home. Oh, what shall I do ? What shall I 
do? What shall I do?” 

Betty tucked the forlorn, weeping little 
bundle into a chair, heaped more w^ood on 
the fire that she had been trying to put out, 
brewed hot tea, and hunted through the 
larder for tempting “ left-overs ” that would 
make up an appetizing little supper for two. 
When Madeline and the smallest sister came 
to see, as Dorothy put it, whether the plosh- 
kin had caught and killed Betty, she sent 
them away with a hastily whispered explana- 
tion. 

Now first,” she told Eugenia, you’re to 
stop crying or you’ll make yourself sick, and 
then where will your midyears be ? And 
secondly you’re to eat what I’ve cooked, be- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 215 

cause it isn’t polite to act as if you didn’t 
like my cooking. And thirdly you’re to 
escort me as far as the door of the Davidson. 
I’m going to see Miss Raymond. I’m sure 
jmu misunderstood part of what she said, be- 
cause she isn’t the kind to speak that way. 
If she has made up her mind to flunk you, I 
don’t know that I can do anything, but I’m 
going to try.” 

Oh, you mustn’t bother,” moaned Eugenia. 

It’s no use. I suppose it was cheating. 
You said it was yourself.” 

I ought to have told you specially not to 
bring the * flnal ’ theme to me,” Betty told 
her. And if you did leave it here, why, 
I’m responsible in a way for its loss. I shall 
tell Miss Raymond that. I can’t have you 
fail because something you left with me has 
disappeared off the face of the earth.” 

On their way Betty told Eugenia to walk 
ahead slowly while she ran up to bid Dorothy 
good-night. 

I just hate to go,” she told Madeline. I 
don’t know Miss Raymond very well. If it 
was Miss Ferris, I should know just what to 
say; but I’m afraid Miss Raymond will think 


2i6 BETTT wales & CO. 


it was partly my doings that Eugenia brought 
me the theme. I just hate to be mixed up 
in anything that isn't perfectly straight.” 

“ Then let her get out of it as best she can 
herself.” 

Betty shook her head. “ That certainly 
wouldn't be straight,” she declared. I'm 
helping her because the theme was lost off 
my desk — and because she's been so sweet to 
Dorothy.” 

After all, the interview wasn't so dreadful. 
Miss Raymond began by thanking Betty for 
coming at once to explain her side of the affair. 

“ TjJiough of course I knew all that you 
have told me about the part you took,” she 
said. But one thing more — do you think 
Miss Ford is telling the truth about her part? 
You think she really wrote the theme? ” 

“ Oh, yes, I'm sure she did,” Betty an- 
swered earnestly. She has queer ideas 
about what would be fair and honest, but I'm 
sure she doesn't tell out-and-out lies. Be- 
sides, how would she ever think of such a 
story ? ” 

It's no stranger than others I've listened 
to that proved to be the invention of girls 


BETTT WALES & CO. 217 

stupider than Eugenia Ford/' Miss Raymond 
assured her smilingly. But I shall accept 
your judgment in the matter." 

And give her a chance to write another 
theme ? " asked Betty eagerl3\ 

Miss Raymond hesitated. I don't see 
how I can do that, when I have refused half 
a dozen others who had better excuses. But 
what's lost generally turns up, doesn’t it? 
Suppose I give Miss Ford three weeks, in the 
hope that her theme will come to light. Of 
course I shall trust to her honor not to write 
another and substitute it for the original." 

But if it doesn’t come to light? " Betty 
knew just how thoroughly she had ransacked 
her desk. 

Miss Raymond considered. Then what I 
can do will depend on the reports I get from 
her other instructors — and from you, if you 
are to continue tutoring her." 

Betty blushed violently. If you remem- 
ber my themes. Miss Raymond, I know you 
think it's perfectly crazy for me to be tutor- 
ing in English.” And she explained how 
she had been driven to beginning with 
Eugenia, and then not allowed to stop. 


2i8 BETTT wales & CO. 


When I see the ^ final ' I can judge better 
how successful youVe been/^ Miss Raymond 
told her cordially, but I imagine you've 
done good work. The best writers don't 
make the best teachers. What was her sub- 
ject?" 

Betty blushed again. ^ Little Girls.' I'd 
kept telling her to take something definite 
and something she knew about, instead of 
hope, and Japanese gardens, and things of 
that kind. But ^ Little Girls ' is a sort of 
ridiculous title, isn't it?" 

It sounds rather promising to me," Miss 
Raymond said. “ I hope I shall have the 
opportunity of reading about ‘ Little Girls.' 
Will you explain our arrangement to Miss 
Ford ? " And Betty felt that she was dis- 
missed. 

She hurried over to tell Eugenia how far 
she had succeeded, and Eugenia cheered up 
perceptibly over the ray of hope held out to 
her, and even found heart to taste the fudge 
that her sympathetic roommate had made to 
comfort her. 

Betty finished off her evening with a call 
on Miss Ferris, who assured her, in answer to 


BETTY WALES & CO. 219 

her apologetic account of the situation, that 
she didn’t in the least regret, nevertheless, 
having practically compelled Betty to tutor 
Eugenia. 

And Eugenia is quite right ; you can’t 
stop now,” she declared laughingly, and then 
grew serious. ** This episode is hard on both 
of you, but it will result in her practicing, if 
she doesn’t fully accept, a higher code of 
honor. Then you say she has learned to 
work, and this is her chance to show it. 
Miss Raymond won’t be hard on her if she 
shows that she means to do her best. You 
didn’t think I expected you to change all her 
spots in a minute, did you ? ” 

Betty went home, feeling that a great load 
was off her shoulders. To be sure, she was 
perfectly certain that Eugenia’s theme was 
lost “ for keeps,” but nobody, not even 
Eugenia, seemed to blame her. And some- 
thing would surely happen to make things 
come right. 

At home something had already happened 
to make things interesting, in the shape of a 
telegram from Babbie, who had decided to 
come up to Harding, although Madeline had 


220 BEirr WALES & CO. 


not yet carried out her plan of sending for 
her. And so she didn’t know a word about 
the ploshkin or the dinner project. It wasn’t 
to discuss those, certainly, that she was com- 
ing to Harding. 


CHAPTER XIII 


MORE side-lines’" 

On the afternoon of her arrival Babbie had 
tea, alone and very early, at the Tally-ho. 
Just after Nora had served her, Mr. Thayer 
appeared. He came over to Babbie’s table to 
shake hands, as a matter of course, and he 
lingered over the process until the very least 
Babbie could do was to invite him to share 
her repast. 

I met a cousin of yours,” she informed 
him, at the week-end party I’ve just come 
from — Mr. Austin Thayer. I saw a lot of 
him, and we got quite chummy.” 

Austin’s a fine fellow,” agreed Mr. Thayer 
cordially, ** but he and I disagree about so 
many things — we don’t hit it off at all.” 

“ No,” said Babbie serenely, crushing a 
slice of lemon relentlessly with her tiny 
wooden spoon — Japanese spoons, for the Jap- 
anese teas were the latest innovation at the 
Tally-ho. “ Your cousin Austin thinks you 
221 


222 BETTT WALES & CO. 


are very foolish boy/ to quote his own 
words. We discussed you at dinner last 
evening/^ 

Mr. Thayer flushed. ''And did you de- 
fend me just a little?’^ he asked. "Because 
if you didn't, considering what Austin has 
called me now and then, I don't see how 
there could have been much discussion." 

" Well, if you make a point of it, it wasn't 
a discussion," Babbie told him coldly. "It 
was an — an exchange of experiences. He 
told me what he knew about your past life, 
and I told him the very little I know about 
your present activities." 

Mr. Thayer smiled a perfunctory smile. 
" It must have been a desperately dull din- 
ner. My affairs are never the least bit exci- 
ting. Next time you meet Austin at any- 
body's week-end, make him talk about 
himself." 

" Oh, he did that too," Babbie explained, 
" sitting out dances the first evening. He's 
had piles of fascinating experiences. If I 
were a man I think I should go in for the 
same sort of thing exactly. I love the way 
he pounces down on the Stock Exchange, 


BETTT WALES & CO, 223 

straight out of a South African jungle, and 
after he’s made two or three millions calmly 
departs again to climb Mount McKinley, or 
motor through Tibet. And when his two mil- 
lions are spent, he builds a town or sells a gold 
mine, and then buys a castle on the Hudson 
and a car and a motor-boat, and tries another 
kind of fun. He doesn’t bother with em- 
ployees and fiddling little plans for making 
them ^ safer and happier,’ ” Babbie quoted 
maliciously. 

** No, he doesn’t,” returned Mr. Thayer with 
asperity. “ They mobbed him once in Chicago, 
because he’d cornered the wheat supply and 
the price of bread had nearly doubled.” 

Was that the time he made five millions 
in three months ? ” asked Babbie blandly. 

That evening, while Babbie, in a rufily pink 
negligee, sat cross-legged on Madeline’s couch, 
eating fudges and playing with the ploshkin, 
she explained to her two friends that the week- 
end party had bored her to tears.” 

“ There wasn’t a possible man there, and 
Margot kept pairing me off with a fright of a 
millionaire who was always getting you into 
a corner and making you listen to wild tales 


224 BETTT WALES & CO. 

of gigantic business ventures he’d pulled off. 
I detest business. Money should be seen 
and not heard,” ended Babbie sententiously. 

But the next afternoon she rushed out of 
Flying Hoof’s stall, where she was being en- 
tertained at tea by some adoring freshmen, to 
inform Mr. Robert Thayer that his cousin Aus- 
tin had sent him kind regards. 

In a note, you know.” She fluttered it 
before him tantalizingly. ** We’re both invited 
to another house-party, you see. He wants to 
know if I’m going to accept.” 

And are you ? ” ventured Mr. Thayer. 

That is, if I may ask, by way of showing a 
cousinly interest in Austin’s happiness.” 

“Most certainly not,” snapped Babbie 
flercely. 

“ Ah, I beg a thousand pardons I I was only 
joking, Miss Hildreth.” 

“ I’m most certainly not going, I mean,” 
Babbie explained amiably, after a moment of 
frowning perplexity, and swept back to her 
tea-party, leaving a completely bewildered 
young man behind her. 

He relieved his feelings by telling Betty the 
good news about the club-house. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 225 

IVe bought that big, old-fashioned place 
across the street from the factory. We couldn’t 
have begun building before April, and it 
seemed out of the question to delay so long. 
Besides, this is just the thing, or it will be in 
a month, when the architect and his minions 
have finished with it. I told him that you 
people changed a barn into a tea-shop in ten 
days, and if he can’t alter a few partitions, 
paper a few walls, and get in the furniture in 
a month, he needn’t expect any more work 
from yours truly. So bring on your college 
girls, find out who wants to teach what and to 
whom, and tell me which ones are to go on the 
pay-roll and which are ready to give their 
services. I’ll send you a list of the prospec- 
tive pupils, with ages and nationalities at- 
tached.” He paused and looked sharply at 
Betty. Are you tired to-night. Miss Wales? ” 
Betty shook her head. “ I’ve lost something, 
and I’m being foolish and worrying over it.” 

You work too hard,” Mr. Thayer decreed. 
When I’m overworked I always lose my 
gloves. It’s a sure sign. You’re not to be both- 
ered with those lists. But the trouble is, I 
don’t know the college girls. There’s got to be 


226 BETrr WALES & CO. 


somebody for a go-between. Could I hire one 
of the hire-able ones for a sort of secretary? ” 

Betty considered. “ Midyears are making 
everybody awfully busy now and it wouldn’t do 
to wait ten days or so, till they’re over, would it ? 
Besides, this thing will have to be managed just 
right to give it a good start. Why don’t you 
ask Babbie? She’s awfully good at things 
like that, and awfully interested in the club- 
house idea.” 

“ Is she ? ” gasped Mr. Thayer. 

Betty nodded. ^'She says she thinks the 
finest thing a rich man can do is to look after 
the men and women who are making his 
money for him.” 

** She said that? ” gasped Mr. Thayer again. 
Then he looked pleadingly at Betty. “ Would 
you ask her to take charge, please ? I think 
she’d do it quicker for you.” 

And he hurried off, leaving Betty to piece 
together all the things Babbie had said and 
done in connection with Mr. Thayer, and all 
that he had said and done in connection with 
Babbie. Her final conclusions were, first, that 
Mr. Thayer was afraid of Babbie ; second, that 
Babbie was interested in Mr. Thayer’s work, 


BETTT WALES & CO. 227 

but not in Mr. Thayer ; and third, that Made- 
line was therefore mistaken, owing to an over- 
romantic tendency developed by the writing 
of a great many love-stories. 

In any case Babbie readily agreed to post 
notices about the opening of the stocking 
factory’s classes, see that the most promising 
volunteer teachers got the most difficult 
pupils, interview the Student’s Aid officers 
about the paid instructors, and be present' 
during the evenings of the first week to make 
sure that each teacher found her class and 
that things ran smoothly. 

It’s a good excuse to delay going South 
until next month,” she said. “ Mother is just 
as bored by Southern resorts as I am, but she 
hasn’t the strength of mind to break off the 
habit of going to them. So she’ll be secretly 
relieved, and as proud as Punch, too, to think 
that I’m bossing a big evening-school. 
Mother’s purely ornamental herself, so she 
admires the useful type of woman. I must 
write her immediately about the tea-shop’s 
latest departure. Betty, can’t you induce Mr. 
Thayer to serve coffee and sandwiches to the 
ones that learn their lessons nicely, and then 


228 BETTI'' WALES & CO. 


the tea-shop will be making something out of 
my school/’ 

Wait till we get our dinners started, before 
we begin on nine-o’clock lunches,” Betty ad- 
vised her. 

‘‘ I shall order the very grandest dinner you 
can imagine for the opening night,” declared 
Babbie enthusiastically, so you must manage 
to start before I leave.” 

We can have new menu cards now,” put 
in Madeline. “ I never did like the color of 
these, and besMes I think Bob Enderby ought 
to put a gift-shop in one corner of the design 
he drew for us. It certainly ought to be 
noticed in some way on the menu.” 

I think he ought to add a night-school 
too,” declared Babbie playfully, and a notice 
that Betty does tutoring. If we’re broaden- 
ing out so much, we ought to let people know 
all about it.” 

Just because you happen to be running it, 
the night-school isn’t a branch of the tea-shop, 
Babbie,” demurred Madeline. Wait until 
Mr. Thayer actually promises to buy the sand- 
wiches before you consider it a part of the 
‘ eats ’ business.” 


BEITT WALES & CO. 229 

Well, it’s an outgrowth of it,” retorted 
Babbie. The tea-shop is responsible for the 
club-house.” 

Oh, if we’re going to put all that the tea- 
shop is responsible for on the menu,” Made- 
line began, with a provoking little smile, we 
should have to put on a picture of a broken 
h ” 

“ Come, girls,” interposed Betty, hastily, 
foreseeing another blundering reference from 
Madeline to Mr. Thayer’s devotion to Babbie, 
“ don’t quarrel about unimportant little things 
like menu cards, but let’s discuss what we 
shall serve and what new china we need.” 

Oh, new china 1 ” cried Madeline in great 
excitement. “ I hadn’t thought of that ! I 
shall go to New York to buy it. Now, who- 
ever said the fat little mustard jars were an 
extravagance? We shall use them a lot for 
dinners.” 

Betty banged the table for order. ** Now 
how many dinner plates shall we buy to begin 
with ? ” she inquired in businesslike tones. 

Madeline banged the table . noisily in her 
turn. “ I know something much more im- 
portant than dinner plates,” she declared os- 


230 BETTT WALES & CO. 

tentatiously. “ Do let’s be businesslike, 
Betty, and systematic. Your haphazard meth- 
ods jar upon my order-loving soul.” 

Betty waited resignedly. 

‘‘ The most important thing is an assistant 
for you,” Madeline went on. You can’t do 
more than you are doing now. If we serve 
dinners, there will be more marketing, more 
accounts, more to see to all around the place, 
and longer hours for the cashier.” 

Oh, of course Betty must have an assist- 
ant,” chimed in Babbie, and a bigger salary. 
It’s not fair for us to be making such good 
profits when she works so hard.” 

You’ll make more, even with a good many 
extra expenses, if the dinners go as I think 
they will,” put in Betty, forcing her associates 
to listen, while she explained what could be 
done if the average dinner check was so-and- 
so, the average attendance so-and-so, and the 
additional expenses kept down to this and 
that. 

'‘All right; let’s serve dinners by all 
means,” said Babbie gaily. “ I hate averages, 
because as far as I can see they never come 
out the way you want them, but I’m all for 


BETTT WALES & CO. 231 

expansion. Mummy will like it too. She^s 
awfully proud of us. Now Betty can do a 
go-as-you-please on the details, can’t she, 
Madeline? We only bother by putting in 
our oars ; we’re such ignoramuses.” 

Empowered to choose her own assistant, 
Betty spent two days anxiously considering 
various possibilities. If only it were fall, and 
Katherine or Rachel were free to try this un- 
conventional way of earning a living ! And 
then, just at the crucial moment, when she 
had almost decided to ask a junior who was 
working her way through college to come 
and try the work for the rest of the term, ar- 
rived a letter from Emily Davis, with moving 
pathos behind its story of a bitter disappoint- 
ment bravely accepted. 

“ I can’t blame my old eyes,” Emily wrote, 
“because they’ve served me long and well, 
and I’ve overdriven the poor beasties shame- 
fully. So now they balk, and the doctor says 
they just must be humored. They’ll hold 
my position in the school for me until next 
fall. In the meantime I’m hunting for any 
honest means of livelihood that doesn’t re- 
quire eyes. I should cry a few tears at hav- 


232 BETTT WALES & CO. 

ing to give up this perfectly splendid position 
that I was so elated to get ; but crying is very 
bad for the eyes, so I smile and smile and 
keep on thinking how in the world I can 
manage to earn my bread and butter until 
next September. This summer, if worse 
comes to worst, I can wait on table at a sea- 
side resort. Please don’t think I’m hinting 
for a chance to do it at the Tally-ho. I 
should hate to explain to everybody I know 
at Harding how it happens that I’m back at 
an underclass girl’s last resort — I, who was a 
star tutor way back in my junior year, and 
who meant to come to our reunion in June a 
star teacher, with all the money I borrowed 
to go through college paid back, and enough 
left for board at my sister’s through a restful 
summer. And now the oculist’s bill is gob- 
bling up everything in sight. 

“ What a growl ! But this is a safety-valve 
letter, Betty. As you are earning your liv- 
ing too, I feel extra sure you’ll understand.” 

What she means is, she feels sure that I 
won’t offer her money,” Betty reflected 
shrewdly. ‘‘ And isn’t it just splendid that I 
can offer her a good position ! ” 


BETTT WALES & CO, 233 

For of course Emily was the very one to be 
assistant manager. To be sure, Betty hated 
the clerical work, and had planned to have 
her assistant take charge of the accounts. 
But the keeping of those was a small thing 
compared to having dear old comical Emily 
Davis back, with her famous stunts,’^ her 
cheerful fashion of meeting defeat and failure 
with a smile, and her inarvelous ability to 
work twice as hard as any one else and yet 
always appear calm and collected and un- 
hurried. Betty had a feeling that Emily 
would insist upon attending to the lamps and 
the stove. She wouldn’t let her do it all, of 
course — she knew too well how hard it was 
— but just a little help would be such a 
relief. 

Of course Babbie and Madeline were as 
eager as Betty to have Emily join the tea- 
room’s force, and Emily could not have re- 
sisted the combined logic and pleading 
of the three letters they sent her, even 
if she had wanted to. So she wrote back 
post-haste a grateful acceptance of their offer 
and promised to be on hand within a fort- 
night. 


234 BETTT WALES & CO. 

There remained still the ploshkin project 
to consider. The tea-room^s uninvested capi- 
tal would just about buy the extra china and 
other equipments needed for the dinner 
service. Betty was averse to asking Mrs. 
Hildreth or Mrs. Bob for more money, and 
the profits had been divided in January, so 
they were not available. But Bett}^ had kept 
her emergency fund intact all winter, as her 
father had advised, and she had added to it 
appreciably from her salary, her tutoring 
money, and her work for the gift-shop de- 
partment. It was now well on toward spring, 
and the tea-shop had fully proved its money- 
making capacities. 

So, if you don^t mind, I should like to 
have the ploshkins made with the money 
that father gave me, if it^s enough — and it 
will be if Madeline can get them done at 
about what she and Mary thought would be a 
good investment. Then I'll sell them here, 
and give the shop a small commission, as the 
college girls did when we sold their things 
before Christmas." 

This was perfectly satisfactory to everybody, 
and Madeline departed gaily to pay visits in 


BETTT WALES & CO. 235 

Bohemia, see editors, match china, and get 
ploshkins manufactured — a potpourri of as- 
sorted activities that thoroughly delighted 
her variety-loving temperament. 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE KEVOLT OF THE WHY-GET-UPS ” 

It was the dull season between midyears 
and spring vacation — a time that makes the 
ordinary Hardingite restless, and drives the 
clever ones to all sorts of absurdities and ex- 
travagances. The best stunts are always in- 
vented at this season, and the wildest pranks 
perpetrated. This year Prexy guilelessly an- 
nounced in chapel that bobbing ” and 
“ hitching with sleds were not, in his es- 
timation, dignified forms of recreation for the 
womanly woman who was Harding’s ideal. 
So with dust-pan coasting also under the ban, 
and the ice on the skating-rink frozen humpy 
— just to be spiteful, Georgia Ames declared 
— the dull season opened ten times duller than 
usual. 

Of course Betty heard all about the anti- 
bob ” ordinance, and sympathized duly with 
its downtrodden victims. 

“ There are getting to be too many old rules 


BETTT WALES & CO. 237 

in this place, anyway,'’ declared Lucile Merri- 
field hotly, as they discussed the matter over 
their teacups in Flying Hoofs stall. “ We're 
supposed to be sensible, reasonable creatures 
and to know what's permissible in this rural 
retreat. I shouldn't go * hitching ' in New 
York. I should probably wear my hat there 
when I went out shopping. Prexy doesn't 
give his sweet creation, the womanly woman, 
credit for ordinary intelligence." 

“ He wouldn't be able to if he heard you 
talk, my dear," Polly Eastman told her 
soothingly. “ Have some more of Betty's 
Cousin Kate cookies. They're very good for 
the temper, and not against the rules." 

Are you sure ? " demanded Lucile acidly. 
“ There are so many rules now that I shouldn't 
pretend to keep them all in my head at 
once." 

“ Let's get Madeline and make her tell tea- 
ground fortunes," suggested Georgia. “ I'm 
tired of all this fuss about rules." 

But Madeline, who was in the loft writing, 
had overheard enough of the conversation to 
enable her to make her fortunes timely, and the 
“ anti-bob " ordinance was not yet disposed of. 


238 BETTT WALES & CO. 

*^You\e got a tempest in your teacup, 
Lucile,” she announced. “ It’s a frightful 
brain-storm brought on by the lack of your 
favorite outdoor exercise. Isn’t ‘ hitching ’ 
your favorite exercise, dearie ? Well, do you 
see that? That’s a tipped-over sleigh. A 
brain-storm is better than an early and ig- 
nominious death encountered while ^ hitch- 
ing,’ Lucile. But you’re going to do something 
very silly during the brain-storm.” Madeline 
frowned portentously over the grounds in 
Lucile’s cup. I think I see Proxy — yes, the 
venerable Proxy himself is in here. You’ll 
be called up before the powers, Lucile, to an- 
swer for your foolishness, so beware.” 

Lucile smiled her subtle, far-away smile — 
it was first cousin to Mary Brooks’s beam- 
ish ” one. That will at least be exciting,” 
she said. Fluffy Dutton, what do you say 
to a race to see which of us can break the 
most of their old rules at one go? ” 

Fluffy shook her curly head vigorously. 
‘‘ I’ve been up before the powers once, thank 
you, for too many lights after ten and cutting 
Greek prose and being back late after Christ- 
mas. I don’t care for it at all. If he’d glare 


BETTT WALES & CO, 239 

and storm it wouldn^t be so bad, but when he 

appeals to your better judgment ** Fluffy 

shrugged expressively. He treats you like 
an equal, and looks at you hard and shakes 
hands so nicely when he’s finished you up. 
And then you go off feeling like a marked- 
down bargain-lot of last night’s faded violets. 
No, thank you, Lucile. I’ll race you any- 
where you like except to interviews with 
Prexy.” 

^‘Good for you. Fluffy.” Georgia patted 
her on the back approvingly. “ I didn’t 
think you had so much sense.” 

“ Lucile has just as much, only she’s trying 
to deceive us about it,” put in Betty, who 
had come over to hear the fortunes. 

And then Madeline discovered a tall, light- 
haired suitor in Polly’s cup, and being accused 
of inventing him pointed him out to the satis- 
faction of the assembled company. And 
when Polly vehemently denied knowing a 
single light-haired man, she predicted a 
speedy meeting, a box of chocolates, an ad- 
venture by water, and a summer together by 
more water. 

Prom, man, of course,” explained Georgia 


240 BETTT WALES & CO. 

easily, invited for you by Lucile-of-the-vast- 
masculine-acquaintance, after your own man 
has decided to break his arm. Really, girls, 
there ought to be a rule against proms., be- 
cause of the broken bones they produce. 
Well, Lucile^s friend will take you out on 
Paradise, thinking he can paddle, and upset 
you. And then he’ll spend the summer at 
Squirrel Island, where you always go. That’s 
easy. Madeline, just tell me if there’s a suitor 
in my cup, please. That’s all I care about. 
Your presents and trips abroad don’t interest 
me a bit.” 

Betty had quite forgotten this conversation 
when, a week or so later, Polly Eastman ap- 
peared one morning at the Tally-ho. 

“ Don’t you want to rent your loft for a lit- 
tle party ? ” she demanded. It’s bigger than 
the down-town hall, and it will be so nice to 
sit down here between times. We want extra- 
good eats too, so you’ll get very wealthy out 
of us.” 

What in the world do you want to give a 
girl-dance for?” demanded Betty. ‘‘By 
junior year we were all pretty tired of them, 
except Helen Chase Adams, who never had a 


BETTT WALES & CO. 241 

chance to go to any other kind. This is a girl- 
affair, of course ? 

Polly was busily examining the depleted 
gift-shop table. “ I always meant to buy a 
pair of these candle-shades,’’ she said, holding 
up one of the Tally-ho’s specials. Will you 
take the order now ? Did you ask who was 
giving the affair, Betty? Oh, just our own 
crowd — the ‘ Why-Get-Up-to-Breakfast Club,’ 
and a few choice spirits who’ve been invited 
to join us. Eats for thirty, I think Lucile 
said ; and we want them very grand and quite 
regardless of expense. About three courses, 
and all nice and spicy, the way campus food 
never is.” 

I think it’s such a funny idea,” pursued 
Betty. Your house party comes before long, 
doesn’t it ? Why in the world don’t you wait 
for that ? ” 

Nothing but lemonade for refreshments 
and a crowd of stupidities that you can’t get 
away from,” explained Polly succinctly. 

Will it be all right about the loft, Betty ? 
I’m due at chemistry lab., and I promised the 
others that I’d have this business all arranged 
by lunch-time.” 


242 BETTT WALES & CO. 

“ Why, ye-es,’’ began Betty doubtfully.^ 
You can have it, I think. The gift-shop 
workroom may as well be closed until next 
fall, and Madeline's papers are used to being 
moved around. I suppose a little dance like 
this is just like a party in a campus room. 
You don't have to get permission from anyone, 
do you ? " 

Easily not," Polly assured her calmly. 
** It's exactly the same thing as a dinner down 
here, or a spread. You've had spreads down 
here, haven't you ? " 

Betty nodded. 

Then I'll tell them it's all right." Polly 
tucked her armful of books more securely 
under her arm and 'started off. Did I say 
that it was next Saturday evening ? We want 
the eats at half-past nine, before everything 
but the last dance." 

Betty began planning the menu and esti- 
mating expenses at once, reflecting as she did 
so that there was certainly no accounting for 
tastes, and half wishing she had suggested to 
Polly that a three course supper wasn't at all 
in keeping with the best Harding traditions. 
** The Merry Hearts " had not exactly handed 


BETTT WALES & CO. 243 

down their ideals to the “ Why-Get-Ups/^ but 
the one society had largely taken the other^s 
place in the life of the college. 

This kind of thing makes people talk 
about the fashionable amusements here and 
the money it costs to go through Harding Col- 
lege. I wish I’d ” Betty remembered 

suddenly that her first duty was to the tea- 
shop, and went at her figures in earnest, try- 
ing to feel properly elated over the big order 
and the new source of revenue suggested by 
Polly’s idea of renting the loft. 

It was Wednesday of the next week, and 
oddly enough not one of the “ Why-Get-Ups ” 
had been in for breakfast, lunch, or tea. They 
were saving up for their spread-eagle party, 
Betty thought, until the high-pitched chatter 
of two Belden House freshmen explained the 
‘‘Why-Get-Ups’ ” unusual party, and suggested 
several other possible reasons why they stayed 
away from the Tally-ho. 

“I’m just broken hearted,” one freshman 
declared in her shrill treble. “ You see when 
I asked Marie to our house-party, she prom- 
ised to come if she could have a dance with 
Lucile Merrifield. And now Lucile isn’t com- 


244 BETTT WALES & CO, 

ing. I thought girls always went to their 
house-parties/^ 

Goodness, no, dear,^^ the other told her 
importantly. “ That is, they always have be- 
fore, but you can trust this crowd to be differ- 
ent. HavenT you heard anything about the 
fuss?” 

The shrill-voiced freshman shook her head 
sadly. 

“ Well, of course it^s a dead secret,” the 
other went on, “ but my roommate is an inti- 
mate friend of Miss Eastman’s. They asked 
her to join them, but she decided not to. She 
told me because she was just dying to talk it 
over with somebody. That was away back 
last week. It’s leaked out more now, so I’m 
sure there’s no harm in my telling you. Of 
course everybody will know Saturday night 
when they don’t appear.” 

Do go on,” begged the other. 

At this point Betty, who scorned eavesdrop- 
ping, made an errand to the kitchen. As 
early as possible that evening she went up to 
the Belden. Polly’s room was dark, but Betty 
found the “ Why-Get-Ups ” gathered in full 
force in Georgia’s corner single. Their greet- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 245 

ings were constrained, and they plunged at 
once into a lively discussion of the last num- 
ber of the “ Argus/ ^ which had come out that 
afternoon. 

But Bett}^ refused to delay. “ I’ve come on 
business,” she announced. “ I want to know 
if your house dance is this Saturday ? ” 

“ Why, yes, I believe it is,” Polly admitted 
casually, after a nudge from Lucille, “ but 
weVe not going. I told you we were sick of 
weak lemonade and stupid partners. Have 
you planned our three courses ? ” 

Betty turned upon Georgia. “ Why are 
you all cutting your own house dance ? ” she 
demanded. 

Georgia grinned sociably. “ Bored,” she 
explained briefly. Hying for excitement. 
Pining for novelty. Ask Madeline : she un- 
derstands the feeling.” 

“ But she wouldn’t do this kind of thing,” 
protested Betty. It’s so conspicuous. You 
needn’t have fllled out your cards, — Madeline 
never would, — but you ought to go. And you 
certainly ought not to have an affair of your 
own that night.” 

'' Oh, tell her all about it,” put in Fluffy 


246 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Dutton. ** I never thought it was fair not to. 
She isn't a faculty, but she's a public insti- 
tution. She ought to go into this with her 
eyes open. Besides when she's heard the 
whole story, I'm sure she'll stand for us. 
Mrs. Hinsdale couldn't, of course. I only 
hope that prep, school-teacher Alice is going 
to ask for chaperon won't be too curious or 
too conscientious. Fire away, Lucile." 

‘‘Well " Lucile paused. When you 

came to tell it to an outsider there wasn't so 
much of a case as there had seemed to be when 
they discussed it hotly among their injured 
selves. “ Well," repeated Lucile, “ to begin 
with, we'd all asked men, except Georgia, and 
she'd asked a prep. girl. And then Dickie 
Garrison— rshe's house president — went and 
made rules against them. At least there had 
always been a rule against men, but everybody 
smuggled them in just the same and danced 
with them too, up in the gallery. But Dickie 
said to cut it out. We wouldn't have cared, 
only we were sure she knew about our men 
and had cooked up this plot at the last min- 
ute just to spite us. We aren't very popular 
with Dickie." 


BETTT WALES & CO, 247 

** And then they ruled out asking prep, 
girls/^ put in Georgia. 

And finally Dickie came to me/^ Fluffy 
took up the tale of woe, and said what 
would I think of the next house-meeting’s 
taking up the matter of lights after ten. 
That was just insulting — to say to me.” 

So then we decided to — to revolt,” ended 
the silent, straight-haired Dutton twin. 

There’s no rule against giving an off- 
campus party, with men invited. Nobody 
ever had one before that we know of, because 
nobody ever thought of it. So we’ve just 
kept dark to avoid possible fusses.” 

And if we can only get the chaperon 
business settled, it’s all right,” added Lucile. 

Isn’t it now, Betty ? We’ve asked six 
Hilton House juniors to come too, and I’ve 
invited a lot of extra men.” 

** Including a light-haired one for me,” ex- 
plained Polly gaily, according to the proph- 
ecy of the seeress Madeline.” 

There was a strained little silence. 

Of course,” said Betty bravely at last, 

you don’t remember when the prom, began. 
It was in my sister Nan’s senior year, and 


248 BETTr WALES & CO. 

I’ve heard her tell how it was started on pur- 
pose to give the girls one good chance to have 
their men friends up all at once and avoid 
just this kind of thing. It was against the 
rules then to ” 

It’s not now,” declared Lucile hotly. 

“ Then why didn’t you ask one of the 
faculty to chaperon you ? ” Betty asked in a 
queer, frightened voice, for she hated to inter- 
fere or to seem priggish. 

<< Why indeed?” Georgia echoed. *‘Just 
what Mary Brooks Hinsdale asked us. She 
said she guessed it was all right, but a 
faculty’s wife couldn’t do anything reckless.” 

If you don’t want us, Betty, we can take 
the down-town hall,” Lucile explained coldly. 
“ Only we depend on your sense of honor not 
to give us away.” 

“ Don’t be cross, Lucile,” commented the 
straight-haired twin. Betty’s not that sort.” 

Betty smiled a thank you, and rose to go. 
“ I don’t know what to say to-night about the 
loft,” she said, “ but I’ll let you know the 
first thing in the morning.” 

Directly after chapel next day the straight- 
haired twin appeared, frankly apologetic. 


BEITT WALES & CO. 249 

** The prep, teacher turned us down too/’ she 
said, “ and Georgia plucked up courage to ask 
the new math, assistant, and she turned us 
down. We don’t know any town women. We 
wish — Fluffy and I do anyway — that we had 
told our men about the new rule and asked 
girls instead. This sort of thing is too much 
like work.” 

Betty considered an instant. She had in- 
tended to consult Madeline, but Madeline had 
overslept that morning. Tell the girls that 
if they’ll put it off till next Saturday they 
may have it here, and that I’ll find a 
chaperon myself.” 

“ You angel I ” cried the twin. Lucile 
won’t like it because it won’t spite Dickie, so 
particularly, if you don’t have it the night of 
the Beldon House affair, but the rest will 
jump at your magnificent offer. Betty, will 
you come to the regular house dance with me? ” 

As soon as she had received official notice 
that her proposal was accepted Betty went 
straight to Miss Ferris and explained the 
whole thing, as she understood it, from 
Georgia’s candid statement of motives to the 
Dutton twins’ admission of regret. 


250 BETTT WALES & CO. 

“ But Lucile and Polly are so proud/' she 
added. If they had to give it all up now 
they'd only go ahead and think up some- 
thing sillier to do. So I thought if you'd 
chaperon it, and they promised not to boast of 

it They’re all going to the house dance 

now, except maybe Lucile, and most of the 
few girls who know about their first plan will 
think it's given up. So it will create a lot less 
talk and excitement than if I'd made them find 
another place, and they'd telegraphed for one 
of their mothers and had their party this week 
Saturday, in spite of everything, as they first 
planned." 

Miss Ferris smiled at her. ‘^That sounds 
like good logic. I'll come ; but suppose we 
don't tell them who the chaperon is to be un- 
til they come to their dance." 

To arrive at what one has supposed to be a 
secret and forbidden entertainment and to find 
the head of the philosophy department wait- 
ing smilingly to receive you and your friends 
— well, it makes you feel at once foolish and 
relieved. The “ Why-Get-Up " party was 
an undoubted success, but Georgia Ames told 
Miss Ferris that they were all ashamed of it. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 251 

** Because when you mean to be mean, why, 
it^s not your fault if Betty switches you off 
the track. Of course we all knew that we 
weren^t up here to be giving man-dances. 
We’ll stand by you. Miss Ferris, any way we 
can.” 

The Why-Get-Up-to-BreakfastClub” stood 
by Georgia’s promise. It paid to humor their 
little whim, if only because Fluffy Dutton’s 
light was out at ten for the rest of the year, 
and Lucile Merrifield’s chapel attendance was 
perfect. As for the Tally-ho Tea-Shop, it had 
never seemed like the other places of its kind 
in town, but now more than ever its unoffi- 
cial connection with the college was noted and 
commented upon. 

Isn’t there anything that girl can teach ? ” 
the president asked, when he heard about the 

Why-Get-Up ” party. We’ll have to find 
something to keep her here indefinitely. She 
knows how to make things run.” 

But all Betty cared about was that the 

Why-Get-Ups ” were one and all on the same 
friendly and easy-going footing with her as 
ever. 


CHAPTER XV 


A SEA OF TEOUBLES 

Me. Thayee’s month having been much 
shortened by his tremendous energy, the fac- 
tory classes were successfully started, and Bab- 
bie, with her tantalizing fashion of appearing 
haughtily distant one minute and amazingly 
friendly the next, was off for the gay Southern 
resorts that she professed to hate. At some 
one of them, Mr. Thayer was morally certain, 
his fascinating cousin Austin would make it a 
point to find her. White flannels, he reflected 
glumly, were notably becoming to Austin’s 
style. 

Eugenia’s three weeks were nearly gone too, 
and the lost theme had not come to light. 
Betty had questioned every one who could pos- 
sibly have seen it or taken it from her desk, 
and she had hunted through the tea-shop from 
the remotest corner of the loft to the shed 
where the kerosene can was kept. Poor Eu- 
genia had turned her room topsyturvy on 
252 


BETTT WALES & CO. 253 

three separate occasions, on the principle of 
three times and out,’^ and she had begged all 
her friends to do likewise with theirs, if they 
loved her one little bit. She had passed her 
midyears, and was doing her best with all her 
courses, though she sadly declared it was no 
use at all, since Miss Raymond had never be- 
lieved she wrote her theme and would certainly 
not give her another chance. 

I don’t know that I blame her,” sighed 
Eugenia, only I think she might know that 
if I was going to make up a lie I’d have made 
up a better one than that. If I have to take 
that course over in the * flunked-out ’ class that 
she’s organizing to begin next week, I shall 
d-die. Just think of writing a lot of extra 
themes on top of everything else — in spring 
term too, that you all say is so lovely, when 
nobody expects so terribly much of you. She’ll 
expect more of you. Miss Wales ! ” ended Eu- 
genia vindictively. 

Betty did not dare to hold out any encour- 
agement, but she secretly suspected that Miss 
Raymond was keeping Eugenia on tenter- 
hooks, as good discipline, until the last minute, 
and then meant to let her off easily. Betty 


254 BETTT WALES & CO. 

couldn^t bear to consider the other alternative ; 
she should always have to feel partly respon- 
sible for Eugenia’s misery. The fact that Eu- 
genia assured her sweetly that she wasn’t at 
all responsible and kept on doing nice things 
for Dorothy only made it all the harder. 

And then came Emily Davis, a little pale 
and worn with work done under difficulties 
and with worry over the future, but as gay as 
ever at heart. She slipped in upon Betty un- 
announced one snowy afternoon. 

“ Indade an’ you’re a sight for sore eyes,” 
she cried, rushing at her with a kiss and a hug. 

And it’s destroyed I am for a talk wid ye an’ 
a sup o’ your lovely tay.” 

Emily’s Irish had been a prime favorite with 
19 — , and Betty laughed with delight at hear- 
ing it again. “ Poor lady, did you have a hor- 
rid trip up ? ” she asked, as she rang her little 
bell for Nora. • 

Distressin’, me darlint, distressin’,” Emily 
went on solemnly. What wid cryin’ chil- 
dern an’ worritin’ wimin, wakin’ the place wid 
their noise, I could nayther ” 

'' Sh ! ” warned Betty. '' Here comes Nora.” 

But she was just too late. Nora had over- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 255 

heard the mimicry of her racers speech. Her 
Irish feelings were hurt, and her Irish temper 
kindled. When Betty introduced Emily and 
explained that she had come to share the re- 
sponsibilities of the tea-room, Nora tossed her 
head and said, Yes’m, and is that all you 
wanted ? ” with an air of an offended duchess. 

She served the tea with great care, but in a 
haughty silence that worried Betty and amused 
Emily. 

“ Shall I tell her that I’m sorry ? ” she asked 
Betty. ‘^Or would that only make matters 
worse ? ” 

Betty was afraid it would, and promised to 
explain herself, if Nora gave her an opening, 
which Nora did with a vengeance the minute 
Emily had gone off to hunt for a boarding- 
place and see her old friends. 

** I’ll be going, when my week is up,” she 
announced briskly. 

Betty stared. Oh, Nora, you wouldn’t 
leave me — just when I need you most, too, to 
make the dinners go off splendidly, as I know 
you can. What’s the trouble ? ” 

I don’t think I’ll like taking orders from 
the new lady — I forget her name.” 


256 BETTT WALES & CO. 

<< Why do you think that, Nora ? Betty 
threw out as a feeler. 

She’s not my idea of a lady, Miss Betty, 
if you’ll excuse me saying it out. I’m sorry 
to go an’ leave you in the lurch. Miss, but I 
should always be feeling bothered whenever 
she was by, and when you’re bothered you 
can’t do your work right. So this is a 
week’s notice, ma’am.” 

In vain Betty explained that Emily had 
meant no harm by her imitation. In vain 
she argued, pleaded, coaxed, and scolded ; 
Nora was firm. She had given her week’s 
notice, and in a week she would go. 

Emily was “ destroyed ” in earnest when 
she heard the news ; the feeling that she had 
repaid Betty’s kindness with careless trouble- 
making — or perhaps it was more the reaction 
from the strain of wondering what was ahead 
of her — combined with a bad cold to send 
her to bed for a few days. With all her 
helpers gone, Betty found it very hard to 
find time to hunt for a new waitress. In 
spite of alluring advertisements and diligent 
search by herself and her ever-faithful allies, 
Mary and Georgia, no substitute for Nora was 


BETTT WALES & CO. 257 

forthcoming. But Belden-House- Annie, who 
had no sympathy whatever with her sister 
Nora's “ flighty ways," had sent word by 
Lucile, who told Georgia, who told Betty, 
that she had heard of somebody who might 
do, and that the somebody aforesaid would 
come to see Betty that same afternoon. 

So Betty sat waiting for her, watching the 
hands of the clock that went round much too 
fast, considering that the waitress did not 
come, until the door opened, and her hopes 
took a sudden bound and then dropped dead. 
It wasn’t a waitress. It was a gentleman. 
He looked like the kind who would think 
the tea was cold and the cakes stale, and he 
would very likely be right too. Nora had 
grown very careless since she had decided to 
leave. Betty fervently wished that he had 
not come, but she went forward, with her 
cordial little smile, to meet him, where he 
stood staring uncertainly around the room. 

Did you want some tea ? ’’ she asked 

timidly. '' Because if you’ll sit down ’’ 

The gentleman looked her over closely. 
Tea? Why, yes, I suppose I want tea. It’s 
the thing to want at this hour, isn’t it ? You 


^ 258 BETTT WALES & CO. 

flo a pretty big business here, don^t you ? ’’ 
He glanced toward the stalls, where groups of 
girls were gathered. 

Yes, a good many people come,” Betty 
told him pleasantly. Would you like a little 
table in the window or one near the fire ? ” 

He chose one near the fire, overlooking the 
whole room. He ordered nothing but a cup 
of tea, which he sipped and sipped, while he 
stared at the girls who came in and at those 
who went out, at the china, the decorations, 
the names over the stalls. These last ap- 
peared to interest him particularly, and he 
craned his neck until Betty feared it would 
break, to decipher the one at the furthest 
end of the line. 

Finally he got up and strolled over to her 
desk. 

Nice little place you’ve got here,” he said, 
staring hard at her, with his sharp ferret- 
eyes. Very pretty decorations and all that.” 

Thank you,” said Betty politely. “ I’m 
glad you like it. We’ve tried to make it look 
attractive.” 

You — er — the owner or manager or some- 
thing of that kind ? ” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 259 

Betty explained her position briefly, won- 
dering why she hated so to talk to him. 

“ And do people drink enough afternoon 
tea to pay your partners good profits on their 
investment ? he demanded. 

Betty hesitated. Certainly a stranger had 
no right to pry into the Tally-ho's private 
affairs in this cool fashion, and yet, since 
they were doing well, what harm could there 
be in saying so ? We serve lunches as well 
as tea, you know," she explained tentatively, 
and next week we shall begin to serve dinners." 

Just then Lucile Eastman and a crowd of 
her friends, who had been occupying the stall 
named after Black Beauty, bore down upon 
Betty's desk, laughing and chattering over 
their bill, which was to have been divided 
because the party was a “ Dutch treat," but 
which Nora had put all together by mistake, 
and summarily refused to change. 

Now jam is twenty cents," Lucile was ex- 
plaining, and toast with cheese is fifteen, 
and not a single one of us had the right 
change. Please help us to get it right, Betty 
dear. Now you go first, Polly. You had 
sandwiches, and they're twenty cents." 


26 o BETTT wales & CO. 


Betty got them all straightened out at last, 
and by that time the party in Flying Hoofs 
stall had finished too. But the gentleman, 
who had been fairly swept aside by the crowd 
of hurrying girls, waited patiently enough 
' until they had gone, and then returned to 
Betty and the interrupted conversation. 

“ Well,” he began briskly, I suppose you 
wouldn’t be branching out if you weren’t 
pretty prosperous.” 

In spite of her annoyance, Betty smiled at 
his persistence. I suppose not,” she ad- 
mitted. ** We have a gift department too.” 
She pointed to the table. It’s pretty nearly 
stagnated ever since Christmas, but a new 
specialty for it, that we hope everybody will 
buy, will be here very soon. We’re taking 
orders now, from this sample.” She held out 
the ploshkin for him to see. 

The gentleman shook his head scornfully. 

None of that tomfoolery for me, thank you. 
jBut there’s money in it — I know that. Here’s 
ten cents for my tea. And here’s my card.” 

Betty stared blankly from the bit of paste- 
board he had handed her to the gentleman 
whose name it bore. He was smiling a queer. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 261 


disagreeable smile, as if, for some reason that 
she could not guess, he found her very amus- 
ing. When he had made sure that his name 
meant nothing to her, his smile widened. 

‘‘ Don^t know who I am, eh ? Got to feel 
pretty much at home in this barn^ haven^t 
you ? Feel a good deal as if you owned it, 
don^t you ? ” 

Betty failed to see the connection between 
his first question and the other ; but then, all 
his questions had been queer. No,*^ she re- 
plied steadily, I don’t know who you are, 
sir. I’m sorry, since you think I ought to. 
I’m very stupid about names. We don’t own 
this barn ; we rent it. And — and I think I 
must ask you not to question me any more 
about our business. I am employed by the 
others. I can’t see how anything I have told 
you could do us any harm, but I don’t think 
it’s at all businesslike for me to discuss my 
employers’ affairs with you.” 

Maybe you’ll think differently when I 
tell you that I’m the owner of this property,” 
snapped the man defiantly. Betty gasped. 

Thought I was in Italy, didn’t you ? ” He 
grinned at her cheerfully. 


262 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Betty nodded. “ In Europe somewhere.*' 
Thought my agent was an easy mark, 
didn't you?" 

He has always treated us very fairly and 
politely " — Betty rushed indignantly to the 
agent’s defense — and I don’t see how ’’ 

'' ' Fairly and politely.’ ’’ The man, whose 
card read Mr. James Harrison, repeated the 
words jeeringly. Well, my agent’s got to do 
more than treat young ladies * fairly and 
politely,’ I can tell you, to suit me. Do you 
know what the repairs on this place cost me ? ’’ 

Betty had no idea. 

Mr. Harrison named a sum. I suppose 
you do know what rent you pay ? ’’ 

Of course,’’ said Betty with great dignity. 

We’ve never been late with it so far.’’ 

You pay by the month. You’ve no con- 
tract — no lease. Isn’t that so?’’ 

“ Why — y-yes,’’ Betty admitted doubtfully. 

I supposed that as long as we paid our rent 
and didn’t injure your property, we could 
stay.’’ 

‘‘Certainly you can stay,’’ he told her 
affably, “ only I’m going to raise the rent. 
The rent you pay is ridiculous. From the 


BETTT tVALES & CO. 263 

beginning of next month just multiply it by 
three, please/^ 

“ But — but we can^t afford to pay as much 
as that,'' Betty told him. That's why we 
didn't start in New York — because rents were 
so high. The first thing we asked your agent, 
before we even came to look at this place, was 
the amount of the rent." 

Mr. Harrison looked at her coldly. Well, 
he was an idiot, that's all. I'm not in the 
real estate business for my health. This barn 
never paid decent returns. Now that we've 
found a use for it, there's no reason why it 
shouldn't. Think it over. Make up your 
mind to cut down expenses and profits ; and 
if you should decide to quit, why. I'll buy out 
your fixtures. I'll warrant I can rent at my 
own price within a month." 

Betty had been thinking desperately. I 
don't know very much about business, Mr. 
Harrison," she said at last, ** but it seems to 
me that if we pay rent by the month we 
ought to have a full month's notice that you 
have decided to raise the price. A maid who 
is paid by the week always gives at least a 
week's notice, and if we wanted to leave we 


264 BETTT WALES & CO. 

should certainly have told your agent at least 
a month beforehand.” 

Very well,” he said briskly. This is the 
twenty-third. Next month goes at the old 
rate ; after that multiply it by three or quit. 
Good-afternoon . ” 

Good-afternoon,” Betty told him, with a 
sigh of relief that he had gone, even though 
he left such a dreadful ultimatum behind 
him. But he hadnT gone. He stuck his 
head in the door to say that he would call 
around again ” in a few days for her decision. 

Left alone at last Betty looked at her 
watch. Six o^clock — Belden-House- Annie's 
waitress wouldn't come now. Perhaps it was 
just as well. Perhaps Nora would stay for 
the month — the last month of the Tally-ho. 
They couldn't pay three times their present 
rent. No matter how successful the dinners 
were, that was out of the question. The prof- 
its, outside of the gift department, had been 
comparatively small, and the busiest part of 
the year was now over. If Mr. Harrison per- 
sisted in his determination to raise the rent, 
they would have to stop, or move — and there 
was no place to move to. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 265 

Betty looked around the pretty room, with 
all its attractive “ features,^’ and suddenly 
realized what the closing of the tea-shop 
would mean. Madeline and Babbie would be 
disappointed ; Mrs. Hildreth and Mrs. 
Enderby would lose a part, at least, of their 
investment. But she — and little Dorothy — 
and Emily Davis — Betty reached out for a 
sheet of note-paper to write to Madeline the 
resourceful, and then dropped her head down 
on the big desk and cried as if her heart 
would break. 

Why hadn^t she thought of all this before 
Mr. Harrison left? She had, in a confused 
fashion; but instead of helping her to argue 
with him her despair had made her dumb. 
If only he would let them stay until June I 
Then Emily would be provided for through 
the summer, and father and mother would be 
back from Mexico. Dorothy could go home 
and Betty too, with a nice little sum left over 
to show for her winter's work. But if the 
Tally-ho stopped now, where could she sell 
the ploshkins? And with the emergency 
fund gone, and no salary after next 
month 


266 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Betty could hear father saying with his 
twinkling, amused smile, You oughtn't to 
have counted your chickens before they were 
hatched, little girl. It's a bad habit." 

But who would have thought that every- 
thing could go to pieces now, after such a 
splendid beginning? 

Betty wiped her eyes and composed a tele- 
gram to Madeline : “ If possible counter- 

mand order for ploshkins. Rent raised. 
Will write." 

Then she reflected that a letter would reach 
Madeline by the first mail in the morning, 
and as she couldn't countermand an order for 
ploshkins before that time, a letter would do 
as well as a telegram. But before she wrote 
it she must go and have dinner with Dorothy. 

She found Eugenia and Dorothy on the 
floor playing paper-dolls, quite oblivious of 
the fact that it was past dinner-time. 

‘‘ I feel like a murderer the night before 
he's electrocuted," Eugenia explained cheer- 
fully. '‘To-night I am enjoying myself, for 
to-morrow I've got to go and tell Miss Ray- 
mond that my lost theme is still lost. And 
she'll point with her awful finger to the 


BETTT WALES & CO. 267 

‘ flunked-out * class, and I shall accept my 
doom/^ 

Dorothy tumbled over into Eugenia’s lap 
and hugged her sympathetically. “ Maybe 
you’ll find it to-night,” she said. 

** You’re sure as sure you haven’t hidden 
it?” Eugenia demanded solemnly. 

“ Of course.” 

Then I think it’s in the bay of the plosh- 
kin,” Eugenia declared impressively, “and 
that’s too far off to go to to-night, so I may as 
well be off to dinner. By the way, Betty, I 
want a dozen ploshkins out of the very first 
that come.” 

Instead of the pleased smile that Eugenia 
had expected, Betty’s face wore a positively 
tragic expression. “ I’m not sure that we 
shall have any to sell, Eugenia. There’s some 
trouble. I can’t explain to-night. I ” 

Eugenia’s little face hardened as she listened 
to Betty’s astonishing announcement. She 
had not lost her ambition to take a place in 
Harding’s charmed circle, and she had counted 
on the ploshkin and her connection with it to 
help her in becoming that envied and enviable 
creature, a “ prominent girl.” 


268 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Madeline Ayres and Fluffy Dutton made 
it, but it was Eugenia Ford^s idea^^ — that was 
what she had looked forward to people’s say- 
ing. And Polly Eastman was writing a song 
called “ The Bay where the Ploshkin Bides ” 
for Tibbie Ware, soprano soloist of the Glee 
Club, to sing for her encore number at the 
spring concert. There wouldn’t be point 
enough to the song if there was only one 
ploshkin. Being naturally silly and suspi- 
cious, Eugenia now scented a deep-laid plot 
against her happiness. Without stopping to 
reason out the absurdity of her idea, she dis- 
entangled herself from Dorothy’s caressing 
arms. 

“ You don’t need to explain that,” she said. 
“ The only thing I really want explained is 
where the theme I left on your desk went to. 
Good-night.” 

So that was what Eugenia really thought I 
Betty sat very still wondering what would come 
next. 

I’m homesick for my dear mother, Betty.” 
Little Dorothy, awed by Eugenia’s coldness 
and her beloved sister’s forbidding silence, was 
very near to tears. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 269 

Betty held out her arms. So am she 
said, and in a minute more the two sisters, 
clasped tight in each other’s arms, were crying 
out all their troubles. Betty came to her 
senses first. 

‘‘ We mustn’t be such sillies,” she told Dor- 
othy, with a watery attempt at a smile. 
“ Mother wouldn’t ever get homesick for 
two such big cry-babies as we are. Now come 
and let me bathe your face, and then we’ll go 
right down to dinner. No, it’s too late. We’ll 
go over to the tea-shop and cook a nice little 
supper for ourselves. That will be lots of fun, 
won’t it?” 

** Ye-es,” agreed Dorothy faintly. ** Can we 
have strawberry jam ? ” 

All you want,” Betty promised, wishing 
that she too was at the age when strawberry 
jam could make her forget her woes. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 

Betty found it very hard to keep her mind 
on the preparations for supper. Dorothy^s 
happy little babble of questions and frantic 
efforts to help with everything, drove her 
to the verge of distraction. Betty wanted 
some crackers and coffee and a chance to write 
to Madeline — Babbie had not yet sent any ad- 
dress, and was, besides, too far away to help 
much in the present crisis. But Dorothy in- 
sisted upon creamed chicken on toast and hot 
chocolate, and wished to treat strawberry jam 
as an entree and have ** regular dessert '’besides. 
Betty acquiesced in all her demands not so 
much from good-nature as because she was sure 
that another flood of tears would come the 
minute she said no. But she couldn't make 
ice-cream, which was Dorothy's idea of reg- 
ular dessert," and not a bit had been left over 
from the day's sales. 

270 


BErrr wales & co. 271 

“Just remember how you love * whips/ “ 
she coaxed, and made one out of her share of 
the cream for the chocolate. 

Dorothy watched the proceedings suspi- 
ciously. 

“ Well, but a * whip ’ always has jelly in the 
bottom,’^ she objected. 

Betty suggested using strawberry jam. 

“ Not that kind — real jelly. I shall be sick 
of strawberry jam if I have it so much.^^ 

Betty sighed despairingly, and then smiled. 
“ All right, we^ll turn it into charlotte russe/' 
she said, “ with this big slice of cake under- 
neath. “ 

Dorothy wanted to know which was Char- 
lotte — the cake or the cream — and Betty 
craftily encouraged the discussion, so that 
little Dorothy would enjoy her dessert and not 
notice that she was taking all the cream away 
from Betty, which would have distressed her 
dreadfully. 

“ And now we^ll pile the dishes up, and 
Bridget will do them in the morning,^' Betty 
suggested, when they had finished. 

“ Oh, let’s do them ourselves and s’prise 
Bridget,” objected Dorothy, who was begin- 


272 BETTT WALES & CO. 

ning to surmise that Betty was in a hurry to 
be rid of her. No matter how sleepy she 
was, Dorothy never wanted to go to bed, and 
to-night she was wide awake. 

“ Couldn^t you do them and surprise me? ’’ 
Betty asked. I have a long, long letter to 
write to Madeline, and I want to get 
started, because I^m very tired and I thought 
Vd like to go to bed when you do.’’ 

All right,” agreed Dorothy, and Betty 
lighted her desk-lamp and two candles, be- 
cause candle-light is so soothing and luxu- 
rious, found a fresh sheet of paper to take the 
place of the one that was still damp with 
tears, and had gone as far as, Dear Made- 
line, I have some very bad news for you,” 
when Dorothy fluttered back. 

“ I thought it all over,” she announced, 
** and I thought it would be more of a s’prise 
for Bridget if I didn’t do the dishes. She 
can’t imagine what it is when she sees them 
all piled up in her clean sink. But if I did 
them, it wouldn’t s’prise you a bit, ’cause you 
knew I was doing them.” 

All right. Now we’re all surprised,” said 
Betty absently. So you see if you can’t 


BETTT WALES & CO. 273 

think of something nice to do while I write 
my letter/^ 

“ Haven^t you written it yet?*^ Dorothy 
demanded, with an elaborate show of amaze- 
ment. “ Well, now I'm the most s'prised one 
of all I I thought I stayed out there ages- 
an'-ages." 

Betty smiled and went on writing, while 
Dorothy stood staring disconsolately at her. 

“ It's been ages-an'-ages now,” she declared 
at the end of three minutes by the clock. 

‘‘ Oh, Dorothy, do be quiet ! ” began Betty 
impatiently. And then, as the smallest 
sister's lips quivered ominously, ‘‘ Remember, 
dearie, you're my company, and a company 
always helps along. This letter I'm writing 
is on business about the tea-room, and you 
can help me just lots by being nice and quiet 
until I get it all written.” 

Dorothy eyed her sister mournfully. ** I 
thought that when you had company come 
to see you, you played what they wanted to, 
and waited till they'd gone home to do what 
you wanted to your own self. That's what 
m-mother always said.” Dorothy gulped 
miserably over the mother.” 


274 BETTT WALES & CO. 

'' Yes, that’s one kind of company,” Betty 
explained patiently, and you are that kind 
of company too. But you said you wanted 
to be the other kind — the kind brother Will 
told you about, that people have to keep 
them in business. And I told you you 
might be, so we’re Betty Wales & Co., aren’t 
we ? ” 

Dorothy nodded solemnly. ** That’s why I 
help Nora clean the silver and put the menu 
cards around on all the tables ’most every 
day.” 

Of course it is,” Betty took her up 
eagerly. You help a lot — I couldn’t get 
along at all without my dear little company. 
But you’ll help the most you ever have if 
you’ll be just as quiet as a little gray mouse 
until I’ve finished my letter.” 

Dorothy considered. “ I might draw pic- 
tures,” she suggested tentatively at last. 

'' Of course you might.” Betty handed 
her a pencil and paper. 

But I haven’t any good place to sit,” 
Dorothy demurred. “ I ought to have a 
desk just as much as you.” 

Dorothy Wales,” — Betty’s voice was very 


BETTT WALES & CO, 275 

solemn, — “ if I let you sit down here, will 
you promise, * cross your heart,’ not to speak 
another word until I’ve finished my letter ? ” 

Dorothy nodded her head so vigorously 
that her hair ribbon came off and had to be 
tied on again. Then she established herself 
at the desk, and Betty lighted more candles 
and moved her writing materials into the 
stall of Jack of Hearts. The big room was 
still, save for the scratching of Betty’s pen 
and an occasional loud ‘^ahem” from Doro- 
thy, whose throat was always affected queerly 
in church or anywhere else where she was 
denied the joys of fluent conversation. 

As Betty wrote, the hopelessness of the 
situation grew clearer and clearer. It seemed 
a waste of words to explain it all, when there 
was absolutely nothing to be done. 

'' What do girls know about business, any- 
way?” Will had said that with his most 
scornful air, when Betty had first proposed the 
tea-room project. Well, he was right. A man 
would have thought about a contract. A man 
would have managed somehow to make out a 
case in behalf of the Tally-ho. But how? 
Betty went over the conversation, trying to 


2/6 BETTT WALES Sf CO. 

think what she could have said, how she could 
have answered Mr. Harrison’s questions so as 
to defeat his plans. But she had no inspira- 
tion. He was the owner of the barn. If he 
wanted higher rent, he had a right to it. To 
be sure, people sometimes wanted what they 
couldn’t get. But he had said — 

“ I ought to have taken him up about that,” 
Betty reflected sadly. I ought to have asked 
him if he was perfectly sure that any other 
people would pay such a lot more than we 
have. Madeline would have got him all con- 
fused about it, and perhaps he’d have let us 
stay.” 

She went mournfully over the scene again 
bit by bit. 

I wonder what he wants our decorations 
for,” she reflected. They’re only good for a 
tea-room. Then he must mean to use this for 
a tea-room. But if he rents it all decorated, 
of course it’s worth more. Why didn’t I think 
to say that? Why didn’t I make him think 
we would certainly go right on somewhere 
else ? He can’t steal our name and our ideas. 
It’s not fair. Madeline must come and talk 
to him.” 


BETTT WALES & CO. 277. 

And she returned with new energy to her 
letter, trying to make the case seem as urgent 
as possible, and Madeline’s presence absolutely 
necessary. Madeline was having a beautiful 
time in Bohemia ; Dick Blake had told her that 
her stories were improving, and one of them 
had actually been accepted by an obscure maga- 
zine that paid on publication.” Madeline had 
celebrated this landmark in her Literary Ca- 
reer by giving a dinner at Mr. Bob’s latest find 
in the way of Italian cafes, and she had dis- 
covered, over the cofiee, that four of her six 
guests had been honored by the same mag- 
azine, and that all were still waiting patiently 
for the years to bring around the mystic time 
of publication. 

'‘Who cares? It was a delicious dinner, 
and just as much fun as if I had really ar- 
rived,” Madeline had written Betty. “ And 
now the other four are all going to be game 
and celebrate too.” 

Betty realized how much persuasion it would 
take to detach Madeline from four impending 
celebrations, and begged her with all the elo- 
quence she could command to come to the res- 
cue of the Tally-ho. She was just folding her 


278 BETTT WALES & CO. 

letter when a queer little squeal from Dorothy 
made her jump. 

“ I’m through now, Company,” she called, 
** so you can chatter away as fast as you like. 
What’s the matter? ” 

I opened the secret drawer all by myself,” 
cried Dorothy in an excited treble. “ Nobody 
showed me. I just heard you and Madeline 
and Miss Mary — I mean Mrs. Mary — talking 
about how to do it. And I remembered, and 
after I got tired of drawing pictures for maga- 
zines I did it. Look 1 ” and she danced over 
to Jack of Hearts’ stall with the secret drawer 
in her hand. 

Why, Dorothy Wales ! ” began Betty in 
astonishment. ** I don’t believe I could have 
opened that myself. Why, there’s something 
in it. What ! Oh, Dorothy, 3^ou darling, 
you’ve helped now, I can tell you ! Why, 
Dorothy Wales, do you know what you’ve 
done? You’ve found Eugenia’s theme.” 

** If you’d asked me I’d have found it be- 
fore,” announced Dorothy with dignity. 

'' What do you mean, little sister ? Did you 
hide away Eugenia’s theme in that drawer?” 

“ Of course not. But I’d have looked every- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 279 

where and when I came to this place, why 
there I’d have seen it.” 

But Madeline and I looked there,” ex- 
plained Betty in perplexity, and the drawer 
was empty then. So if you haven’t put it in 
there since, some one else has.” 

“ Here’s another paper,” said little Dorothy, 
handing Betty a card. ‘‘ What does it say ? I 
can’t read that queer kind of printing.” 

‘‘Well, if that isn’t the strangest thing!” 
Betty quite forgot to tell Dorothy that the card 
said, “ Mrs. George Garrison Hinsdale, Thurs- 
days.” “ Mary put that in there herself the 
day she opened the drawer — I remember she 
said we might lose the combination and then, 
years after, her card would be found there, and 
people would wonder what the things she 
wrote on the back could mean. See : ‘ Perfect 
Patron, Promoter of Ploshkins, Candle-shades, 
and Cousin Kate’s Cookies.’ And that card 
most certainly wasn’t there either, when Made- 
line and I had the drawer open hunting for 
Eugenia’s theme.” 

“ You didn’t look very hard, I guess,” said 
little Dorothy wisely. But Betty was over at 
the desk, putting back the secret drawer with 


28 o BETTT wales & CO. 


Mary's card still in it. Then she went 
through the combination, and when the 
drawer came out it was empty again. 

Goodness, but this is funny ! " she said, 
shutting it in hurriedly. But I think I see 
how it happens. Now, Dorothy, you open 
the drawer, please." 

And when Dorothy opened it, there was 
the card. She had used the second combina- 
tion that Madeline had hit upon, and Betty 
had used the first. There were two secret 
drawers, only one of which could be opened 
at a time. They were side by side, and it 
took close inspection to notice the slight dif- 
ference in their positions. When Madeline 
had shown Mary how to find the drawer she 
had used the second combination, and it was 
that drawer that had stayed open all day and 
into which Eugenia's ill-fated theme had 
slipped. But when Madeline had looked for 
the theme, she had happened to use the other 
combination, and consequently had opened 
the wrong drawer. 

Betty hastily added a postscript to her letter : 
‘'Eugenia's theme is found. There are two se- 
cret drawers in the desk, and it was in the other." 


BETTT WALES & CO. 281 

Then she took Dorothy home, for it was 
long past her bedtime, and mailed her letter, 
which must reach Madeline without fail the 
first thing in the morning, so as to give her 
the earliest possible chance to countermand 
the ploshkin order and get ready to start for 
Harding. She reached the campus on her 
other errand just in time to hear the college 
clock toll out the last strokes of ten and to 
see the shadow of the Belden House matron 
and her candle stalk majestically down 
the length of the lower hall. That meant 
locked doors everywhere, so Betty went home 
and to bed. She dreamed that Eugenia Ford 
was throwing the Tally-ho dishes at Miss 
Raymond, who was standing on a table pelt- 
ing Eugenia with handfuls of oats pulled 
from the big horseshoe over the fireplace. 
And through the door to the kitchen wound 
a procession of little ploshkins, who hopped 
along exactly as Billy and Willy Stocking 
had at the Christmas party. 

She woke up later than usual the next 
morning with a queer feeling that something 
unpleasant had happened. In a minute she 
remembered, and resolved not to waste time 


282 BETTT WALES & CO. 


in worry, but to get Eugenia’s theme to her 
as soon as possible and then devote herself to 
persuading Nora to postpone her departure a 
little. 

Eugenia received her with studied coldness. 
She was very much relieved ” to have her 
theme back. Perhaps Betty would explain 
to Miss Raymond. 

Betty was quite willing to do that. She 
didn’t blame Eugenia for being vexed about 
the theme and disappointed about the plosh- 
kins. She would have been, in Eugenia’s 
place, no doubt ; but when she asked Eugenia 
if she should be down in the afternoon to see 
Dorothy, and Eugenia replied coldly that she 
was very busy, and never even sent a message 
of thanks to the little girl for finding the 
missing theme — then Betty was vexed in 
her turn. Dorothy wasn’t to blame for any 
of Eugenia’s troubles. It would be just as 
sensible for Miss Raymond to be disagreeable 
to her because her desk had two secret drawers. 

But Miss Raymond was very friendly and 
very much interested in the two drawers, 
which she promised to come and see for her- 
self soon. And Nora, won by the suspicion 


BETTT WALES & CO. 283 

of tears in Betty^s eyes and by the honor of 
being entrusted with Betty’s unhappy secret, 
promised to stay a few days longer, until 
Madeline had come up and they knew how 
matters stood. 

Madeline arrived that very afternoon. 

** Show me the drawers,” she demanded be- 
fore she was well inside the Tally-ho, and to 
Betty’s dismay she utterly refused to talk 
business, while she sat for an hour opening 
one drawer after another, and hunting 
through the recesses of the desk for more 
sliding panels or hidden springs. 

“ For if there are two drawers, there may 
just as well be three or even four,” she said. 
** And who knows what may be in them or 
how long they’ve been lost and forgotten ? 
Don’t look so disgusted, Betty. I ordered 
the ploshkins the first day I was in New 
York, and this morning it was too late to 
change. To-morrow I’ll hunt up your dread- 
ful Mr. Harrison and try my blarney on him, 
though after the way you managed Dick 
Blake for Eleanor when we were sophomores, 
I don’t see how you expect me to succeed 
where you’ve failed.” 


284 BETTT WALES & CO. 

This was so unexpected/^ Betty ex- 
plained. He frightened all my ideas away, 
because he came at me so suddenly. I^m 
never any good at impromptus.^' 

Madeline sighed. ‘‘And that's all I am 
good for. Now I may struggle over this 
drawer business for hours and find nothing, 
and then some day, when I'm not trying, I 
shall just put my hand out and snap the 
right spring. It's horribly provoking — gives 
you such a lazy, purposeless feeling at times." 

Evidently Madeline didn’t care much 
about the disaster that threatened the 
Tally-ho. She could sit and play with an 
old-fashioned desk, not asking a question 
about all the matters that Betty had not 
taken time to write of fully, nor making a 
single plan for the campaign against Mr. 
Harrison. Well, if she believed so thor- 
oughly in her impromptu inspirations, why 
should she bother with making plans? If 
she only would act as if she cared a little — as 
if she realized what the failure of the tea- 
room meant to Betty. But she only played 
with the drawers, and gave absurd accounts 
of the Literary Celebrations. The next one 


BETTT WALES & CO. 285 

was to be a roller-skating party, and not one 
of the crowd had ever been on roller-skates 
before. . 

** But the first one whose story is printed is 
going to reimburse the rest of us for the doc- 
tors and the liniments we expect to need,’* 
Madeline explained, and Bob Enderby has 
solemnly promised to ask the editor of ‘ The 
Leisure Hour’ to come and meet his near- 
contributors. It’s to-morrow night. Now 
say I’m not businesslike if you dare, to come 
straight up here and miss it all.” Then she 
laughed. I may as well ’fess up that it was 
only the postscript about the secret drawer 
that brought me. But that doesn’t matter, 
does it? Because now that I’m here, I shall 
do my full duty by Mr. Harrison.” 

But the next morning Madeline came back 
in dismay from her visit to Mr. Harrison’s 
Harding office. 

He’s away,” she lamented. The agent 
was there, and I talked to him ; but he can’t 
do anything. He’s in deep disgrace now for 
letting us have so many repairs. And Mr. 
Harrison won’t be back for at least a week ; 
so you’ll have to tackle him yourself after all.” 


286 BETTT WALES & CO. 


Oh, Madeline, can’t you stay over ? ” 
Madeline shook her head decisively. '' Ab- 
solutely impossible. I’ve just hired a studio 
apartment consisting of two closets, miscalled 
rooms, and I’ve begun a novel. It was spin- 
ning along like mad when you stopped it. I 
should have to go to-morrow anyway, so why 
not go now, in time for the roller-skating 
party ? I did want to stay long enough to 
find the other secret drawers, though.” Mad- 
eline frowned absently at the old desk. 

“ Perhaps there aren’t any others,” Betty 
reminded her practically. 

Oh, but I’m sure there are. I have a 
leading.” Madeline stretched out her hand, 
and, just as she had predicted, it hit the 
spring. A fan-shaped panel slipped to one 
side, the wall at the back of the opening 
dropped, and a tiny drawer, deep and very 
narrow, appeared, the small key still in the 
lock. 

There ! ” said Madeline triumphantly, 
opening it. Oh, it’s stuffed full ! Betty 
Wales, these are love-letters, I just know it ! 
Tied with pink ribbons and scented with lav- 
ender. Did you ever imagine anything so 


BETTT WALES & CO. 287 

nice? It’s surely all right to read them, isn’t 
it?” 

“ Perhaps we ought to take them to the 
woman you bought the desk of,” Betty sug- 
gested. 

But her husband had just taken it for a bad 
debt, and I remember she said all the family it 
really belonged to had died or moved away.” 

‘‘ Then I guess it’s all right, so long as 
they’re so very old.” 

They were love-letters, the sweetest, merri- 
est letters to a girl named Patricia from a man 
who signed himself R.” One or two of Patri- 
cia’s notes to ** R.” were tucked in with the 
letters, but as they all began “ Mine,” they 
threw no light on the significance of the R.” 
^etty liked that ; it added to the sense of re- 
moteness, to the story-book atmosphere of 
“ long-ago and far-away ” that belonged to the 
yellowed sheets, the faded ribbons, and the 
quaint, old-fashioned expressions. Most of the 
letters had never been mailed. Madeline al- 
most wept with joy when she discovered that 
they had been put in a hollow tree in Patri- 
cia’s apple orchard. They were arranged by 
dates and once there was a gap of six months. 


288 BETTT WALES & CO, 


That was because the squire of the village had 
asked Patricians father for his daughter's hand 
in marriage, and Patricians father had said yes. 
Patricia was an obedient child, so there were 
no more letters in the tree, in spite of “ R.ns 
pleadings, until one day when Patricia could 
show good reason for sending the squire about 
his business. And then there was a duel. Was 
it between ** R.nn and the squire, or R.nn and 
some other disappointed suitor? They were 
still discussing the evidence when Madeline 
remembered her train. 

Let me take these along, n^ she begged. 
“ fnil send them back in a day or so, but I 
simply must know how it all ended.^^ She 
turned to the desk. There ought to be a 
drawer on the other side to correspond to this 
one.^^ 

“ Let me try to find it,^' cried Betty hastily, 
and after a minute’s fumbling she snapped the 
spring. It’s getting almost tiresome, finding 
so many secret hiding-places, isn’t it ? ” she 
laughed. 

This drawer was full too, but of dusty, 
uninteresting-looking documents. Madeline 
glanced them through rapidly. 


BETrr WALES & CO. 289 

Nothing exciting there, I guess. You can 
look them over, and if they^re about Patricia 
and ‘ send them to me, won^t you? And 
if you hate talking to Mr. Harrison, get Emily 
to go for you, or send Young-Man-0 ver-the- 
Fence. He’d like nothing better than to 
champion the cause of oppressed damsels, 
Babbie Hildreth being one of them.” 

You don’t take this seriously enough, 
Madeline,” Betty told her sadly. 

“ No,” agreed Madeline, ** I don’t, but that’s 
because I have such perfect confidence in your 
persuasive powers. Good-bye.” 

The whistles shrieked for noon. Betty has- 
tily straightened up her desk, gave some last 
touches to the dainty tables, and resolutely 
forced a smile to meet the usual twelve-o’clock 
invasion of hungry customers. Never in her 
life had she felt so forlorn and lonely, but she 
was too proud to show it. She resolved that if 
the Tally-ho Tea-Shop must be abandoned at 
least it should go out in a blaze of glory. At 
first she had not thought it worth while to 
begin the dinner service for only a month, 
but now she decided to inaugurate it at once. 
She hung up the prettily lettered signs that 


290 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Madeline had made : “ Beginning to-mor- 

row the Tally-ho Tea-Shop will serve dinners, 
and will therefore be open until nine in the 
evening/^ The appearance of this announce- 
ment created no little excitement. Six 
girls ordered special dinners for the opening 
night. Eugenia Ford sent a written order 
by a friend who came in for tea. She explained 
that she wanted everything *‘as elegant as 
possible, because her dinner was in honor of 
her roommate^s mother and father — very 
wealthy people.'' She hoped the waitress 
would wear a cap. As caps were Nora's bete 
noir, Betty decided to ask the newest Student's 
Aid waitress if she would mind wearing one 
just this time, by way of helping to heap coals 
of fire on Eugenia's pretty head. 


CHAPTER XVII 


A MAGNATE TO THE RESCUE 

Emily Davis had expected to go to work 
the day that the dinners began, but when she 
tried her strength she found it much less than 
she had thought. She sat at the cashier^s desk 
until two o’clock, and then Betty, noticing 
how pale and miserable she looked, insisted 
on her giving up and going home to rest. 

ril manage some way,” she assured her 
new assistant hopefully. And you’ll most 
certainly catch your never-get-over if you sit 
here with all the draughts blowing on you, 
when you’re not well enough to be up.” 

A stove doesn’t give a very even heat, 
does it ? ” said Emily wanly. '' I’m warm all 
but one side.” 

** A stove,” said Betty with feeling, is a 
relic of the barbaric ages. So are kerosene 
lamps. Running this place without the 
stove and the lamps would be simply blissful. 

291 


292 BETTT JVALES & CO. 

I should feel like a robber when I took my 
salary.” 

“You shall have a chance to feel that way 
just as soon as I begin to earn mine,” Emily 
assured her. “ I hate to leave you to-day, 
but ” 

“ Run along,” Betty broke in. “ I shall 
need you a lot more after Nora is gone.” 

But her resolute hopefulness turned to 
blank dismay when the newly engaged 
waitress, who had seemed so promising, sent 
word that she had sprained her ankle. 
Nora’s regular assistant was a stout, stupid 
girl, who could be trusted only with simple 
orders and unexacting customers. Betty 
went over the names of the girls who had en- 
gaged stalls, found no unexacting ones among 
them, promptly arrayed herself in one of the 
caps that Nora scorned and an apron, sent the 
stupid waitress after a stupid friend who 
could probably make change correctly, and 
planned a division of work with Nora, who 
was frankly horrified at her mistress’s new 
r61e. 

“But the first night must be a success, 
Nora,” Betty explained. “ I’ll stay in the 


BETTT WALES & CO. 293 

kitchen getting orders ready for Mary Jones 
as long as I dare. But when she begins to 
look wild-eyed and distracted, I shall put her 
in the kitchen, and come out myself. It^s 
the only way to have things go off well.” 

By half-past six the tea-shop was crowded. 
Betty, peeping in through the kitchen door, 
was relieved to find very few of her particu- 
lar friends among the diners. She hoped 
that nobody would exclaim over her new de- 
parture or stop her to demand explanations. 
She had a presentiment that if any one did 
she was going to feel, as Nora declared she 
ought, most awful queer.” 

Eugenia’s arrival occurred at an unlucky 
moment, when Nora was too busy to attend 
to her, and Betty decided that her time had 
come. After the first plunge, past Eugenia’s 
blank, unrecognizing stare and through a 
little flurry of amused nods and puzzled 
glances from other girls who knew her, it 
wasn’t so bad. Except Eugenia’s party, no- 
body who gave her orders neglected to hail 
her and condole over Emily’s grippe and the 
new waitress’s ankle. Betty soon got into 
the spirit of the occasion, thoroughly enjoy- 


294 BETrr WALES & CO. 

ing everything but the many trips to 
Eugenia’s stall, with its hedge of pompous 
dignity. She was on her way out to the 
kitchen with a big trayful of dishes, wdien the 
door opened and in strode an elderly gentle- 
man, with a militant air and keen gray eyes 
that twinkled merrily under his bushy eye- 
brows, as he closed the door with a terrific 
bang and looked eagerly about him from one 
absorbed group of diners to another. But a 
man is a novelty in Harding, and this partic- 
ular man would have attracted attention any- 
where ; in an instant he was the centre of in- 
terest ; in another he had discovered Betty 
and she had discovered him. 

Well, Miss B. A. ! ” he called out glee- 
fully, quite oblivious of the staring crowd of 
girls. ** Put down that tray and come and 
shake hands. Didn’t expect to see me to- 
night, did you ? Well, I was almost up here, 
and I’d promised myself that some time this 
winter I’d investigate Harding College, so I 
seized the opportunit3\ I telegraphed the 
little tomboy that John’s so fond of to meet 
me and help show me around. Haven’t seen 
her, have you ? ” 


BETTT WALES & CO 295 

^^No, I haven’t, Mr. Morton,” Betty told 
him — for of course the noisy intruder was 
none other than Jasper Jones Morton, the 
Elusive Magnate of the European trip. 

And I’m afraid she won’t come, because I 
had a letter from her yesterday saying that 
she was in bed with a cold.” 

Jasper J. Morton’s smile clouded. Too 
bad, too bad,” he muttered. She’ll be dis- 
appointed. She likes going off on trips with 
me. We’ll have to send her a consolation 
present to-morrow. You’ll know what she’d 
like. Now, Miss B. A., I want some dinner at 
this famous tea-shop, and I want you to sit 
down and eat with me and tell me all about 
the business.” Mr. Morton threw back his 
head and laughed, as if he thought Betty 
Wales in business at the Tally-ho Tea-Shop 
the very best joke in the world. 

Betty led him to a little table in a corner, 
that had opportunely been left vacant by two 
girls who were hurrying off to a senior play 
rehearsal. But I can’t sit with you,” she 
explained, because I’m waiting on people 
to-night. The regular waitress has sprained 
her ankle.” 


296 BETTT WALES & CO. 

There^s one.” Mr. Morton waved his hand 
imperiously at Nora. She can manage some- 
how. Sit down.” 

But Betty was firm. She explained that 
the dinners were a new departure, that she 
was particularly anxious for every one to go 
away satisfied with the food and the service, 
and finally she promised to wait on Mr. 
Morton herself, and to come and talk to him 
later, when the crowd had thinned. Then 
she fiew to the kitchen after Eugenia’s salads. 

Mr. Morton watched her pick up the heavy 
tray. Bless me, but she’s a worker ! ” he 
muttered audibly, to the vast amusement of 
two freshmen at the next table. “ I supposed 
from what the little tomboy said that she 
was playing at business, but it seems she’s in 
earnest. How I do like to see people in 
earnest ! ” 

When Eugenia Ford had finished her 
dinner, she intercepted Betty in a fiying trip 
to the kitchen after a forgotten cup of coffee. 
** Isn’t that Mr. Jasper J. Morton of New 
York? ’’she asked. “I thought it must be, 
and so did Mr. and Mrs. Valentine, Susanna’s 
mother and father. They know him very 


BETTT WALES & CO. 297 

well, but of course he won’t expect to see them 
here. Would you mind taking us over to 
speak to him ? Why didn’t you tell me you 
knew the Mortons ? ” 

Why should I have told you that ? ” de- 
manded Betty calmly. The subject never 
came up. John Morton is engaged to one of 
my best friends.” 

Really I ” Eugenia’s face was a study. 
“ Well, come over and meet the Valentines.” 

‘‘ Not till I’ve brought Dickie Drake’s coffee. 
Just a second, Dickie.” And she was off. It 
was a master-stroke on Betty’s part, to cap the 
information about the Mortons by showing 
her intimacy with Dickie Drake, who was a 
most exclusive senior. It was one thing to 
speak of her as Dickie — all the college did 
that — and quite another to address her directly 
by her nickname. But Betty was not trying 
to impress Eugenia — which was the reason 
why she succeeded so perfectly then and a 
moment later, when, having been duly in- 
troduced to the Valentines, she convoyed them 
and Eugenia across to Mr. Morton’s table. 

Friends of yours. Miss B. A. ? ” he in- 
quired in a dreadfully loud whisper. Friends 


298 BETTT WALES & CO. 

of mine ! Nonsense — merest acquaintances. 
Well, tell me their names again, and then 
bring ^em along. How do you do, Mrs. Val- 
entine? Mr. Valentine, how are you? Your 
daughter — this one, no, that one — and Miss 
Force. Very glad to see so many New 
Yorkers, I’m sure. Miss B. A., don’t forget 
that I’m waiting for you. I hate to be kept 
waiting, but you’re one of the people that are 
worth waiting for. Do I know your father, 
Miss Force? It’s quite possible. I know 
so many people in one way and another that 
it takes several secretaries to keep me posted 
on the subject. Now if you’ll excuse me. I’ll 
go back to my dinner, which is too good to 
let cool.” 

Whereupon the ** very wealthy ” Valentines 
and “ Miss Force ” departed, and Jasper J. 
Morton chuckled to himself as he wondered 
if they had noticed that what he had left on 
his plate to cool was tomato salad. He had 
reached his coffee before Betty came to keep 
him company. She wasn’t hungry, she ex- 
plained ; she had snatched her dinner bit by 
bit between-times ; but Mr. Morton insisted 
upon her beginning all over again and “eat- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 299 

ing like a Christian/^ telling her meanwhile 
the latest news of John^s senior honors at 
Harvard, of which he was absurdly proud, and 
of the house he was building as a surprise for 
Babe, next to his own stately summer home. 

Now tell me all about yourself,^^ he com- 
manded, when Betty finally declared that she 
couldn^t and wouldn’t eat anything more. 
“ Are you well, and are you happy ? It’s no 
use asking if your business is a success, after 
watching this evening’s crowd eat. But I’m 
afraid you’re overworked. Next time you’re 
shy a waitress just telephone me and I’ll have 
one sent up from New York in short order. 
But if she doesn’t get here soon enough, why, 
let ’em sit a while. Or let ’em run out and 
help themselves. The help-yourself style of 
restaurant is getting to be very popular. Now 
how about your latest ‘ benevolent adven- 
tures ’ ? ” 

Betty told him about the factory’s club- 
house, and promised to take him to see it in 
the morning, after they had been to chapel 
and made a tour of the campus. Mr. Morton 
watched her closely while she talked. 

You’re not happy, Miss B. A.,” he said at 


300 BETTT WALES & CO. 

last. YouVe got something on your mind. 
You don’t laugh right out the way you did 
last summer, and you were thinking about 
something else while I told you about the lit- 
tle tomboy’s new house. Out with it now ; 
what’s the trouble ? ” 

Nothing,” Betty assured him. 

** You say that very much as if you didn’t 
mean it, my dear young lady,” Mr. Morton 
told her. 

Well, nothing that I want to tell 3^ou 
then,” Betty amended, with her flashing 
smile. You’ll want to do something about 
it and I don’t think you can — anyway I don’t 
want you to try, and you’ll only get aw- 
fully 

Mad,” put in Mr. Morton grimly. Well, 
then you’ll have a chance to smooth me down 
the way you did last summer. You can do 
that, but you can’t get out of telling me what’s 
worrying you.” 

So Betty told the whole story, beginning 
with Mr. Harrison’s unexpected visit and 
ending with Madeline’s hurried one. She ex- 
plained why she had begun so suddenly with 
the dinners, and how unfortunate it was that 


BETTT WALES & CO. 301 

there would be no time to sell the ploshkins, 
of whose charms she gave a lively description. 
She accounted for her disappointment purely 
on the ground of not wishing to have the 
Tally-ho Tea-Shop cease at the height of its 
success, saying nothing about the little sister, 
her responsibility for Emily, or the low ebb of 
her own finances. But just as she had pre- 
dicted, Mr. Morton flew into a rage at once. 
Why hadn’t she written him to come and in- 
terview that rascal Harrison ? Why had she 
gone into business in the first place without 
his advice and help ? Where was the scamp’s 
office ? If he did not meet his engagement to 
go to chapel with her the next morning she 
would know what had detained him. 

But, Mr. Morton, Mr. Harrison isn’t in 
town just now,” Betty expostulated, not 
thinking it necessary to add that Mr. Harri- 
son’s absence was the chief reason why she 
had not absolutely refused to confide in Mr. 
Morton. 

'' That may be,” Mr. Morton sputtered, 

but he is somewhere on this side of the 
globe, isn’t he ? He hasn’t dropped off the 
earth, and presumably he can be reached by 


302 BETTr WALES & CO. 

wire or wireless, can^t he? You go to bed 
and to sleep, Miss B. A. Ill settle this scamp 
Harrison/* 

** But Mr. Morton ** Betty began, only 

to be majestically waved into silence. 

admire your independence. I always 
admire independence. But in this case it*s 
absurd. I won*t call this man Harrison a 
scamp to his face, Miss B. A. ; I give you my 
word I won*t. But 111 bring him to terms, 
or my name*s not J. J. Morton. You see. 
Miss B. A., in a case like this my name is a 
pretty valuable asset. It will scare him a 
good deal when he finds who*s back of this 
tea-shop that he thought was run by a parcel 
of little girls.** 

Next morning the chapel bell was tolling 
and the last stragglers were hurrying up the 
hill, hoping to slip in before the doors were 
closed, when a carriage drove up to the 
Tally-ho and Jasper J. Morton, descending 
from it, beckoned wildly to Betty to come 
out. 

I don*t want to miss seeing this famous 
chapel service,** he called, as Betty, who had 
been watching for him by a window, appeared. 



THEY INTERCEPTED THE PRESIDENT 


‘ y 

v:.! 


I 



1 




f 


/ 




i 


•v 


• ^ 

> 


r 


> 



I 




I 




¥ 


t 

f 


^ • 


• s 




s 

• • 


r 

#• 


* 






% - 



« » 


f 

% 

\ 


% 


f 





• • 


I 




» 

I 


I 




I 


>y: 



H. f > 

• '.•• 4. 

- s ■ 1 






S'- ■ 

“-N •. - 


.r 

A » 

.-;■ 


*•*, V 

' * k 

.• , » 

•* - * 


. • » ■ > ; 

’ » ■ • »» 

• • ( 4 • 

i- ’ = ■ 

» 





r 


.» > . 


V; 



. /• 


y t * ^ * * » - 


¥ % 











.4 f 


V 

• * 'I 


V ,. . 


S • 




BETTT WALES & CO. 


303 


IV0 done your business, Miss B. A. I 
routed out the agent, got this Harrison’s ad- 
dress, and — he chuckled reminiscently, — 
‘‘ in three minutes by long distance the 
whole thing was arranged. The rent and the 
agent go on just as usual. The agent will 
bring you a contract, made out for as long as 
you like. There will be no rent this summer 
while the place is closed for needed repairs. 
Is this the right way to chapel? Come on 
then.” 

The portly form of Jasper Jones Morton 
barely squeezed through the chapel door as it 
slid shut, and he and Betty dropped breath- 
lessly into the back row of seats. 

I like to accomplish what I set out to,” 
he murmured under cover of the opening 
chant. And I’d like to meet the president 
of the college some time when it’s convenient.” 

So they intercepted the president when 
chapel was over, and the president insisted 
upon personally conducting so distinguished 
a financier as Jasper Jones Morton over his 
domain. Jasper Jones Morton beamed upon 
the president and upon every inch of the do- 
main, and he made ostentatious notes of the 


304 BETTT WALES & CO. 

president's unostentatious hints regarding the 
needs of the college. 

He went over these later, as he devoured an 
early luncheon by the fire in the Tally-ho. 
“ Now, shall I build them a library annex, or 
a greenhouse, or a dormitory ? he demanded. 

I couldn't give him any idea what to expect 
until I'd seen you." 

“ I wish you could build a dormitory for 
girls who can't pay the regular price for 
board," said Betty impulsively. They have 
to live so far off and in such horrid little 
places " 

Exactly." Mr. Morton cut her short. 
“ Don't I know ? Have I forgotten the holes 
I've boarded in ? Now of course I'll put up 
that kind of dormitory, with an endowment 
to cover the expense of running it. You've 
got nerve. Miss B. A. That gift will cost at 
least twice what the others would." 

Betty only laughed, for she was very sure 
that Mr. Morton did not care what his gift to 
Harding cost. Besides she was too happy 
about the Tally-ho's rent to worry about any- 
thing else. 

“ Now if you have that decided, please tell 


BEITT WALES & CO. 305 

me how you managed Mr. Harrison/^ she 
begged. “ I may have to manage him some 
time myself, when you’re too far away ” 

No you won’t,” Mr. Morton interrupted 
with decision. ** I have just one rule. Miss B. 
A., for the treatment of scoundrels : Eliminate 
them. I applied the rule this morning in the 
simplest way that occurred to me, by buying 
this property.” 

“ So you’re our landlord now I ” gasped 
Betty. 

I am,” Mr. Morton assured her. ** Just as 
soon as the college closes I want this tea-room 
to close too, so that I can install decent up-to- 
date systems of lighting and heating and make 
any other improvements that you or the artis- 
tic young lady named — thank you, yes, Ayres, 
can suggest. Remember I hate half-way meas- 
ures. I want my building to be the finest 
quarters for a tea-shop in the whole U. S. Then 
I guess, when you are tired of running the 
place — or I might say anxious to try your 
hand at running some lucky young man — 
why, you won’t have any trouble in finding a 
successor.” 

Oh, Mr. Morton,” sighed Betty reproach- 


3o6 BETTT wales & CO. 

fully, ‘‘ you shouldn’t have done it. Really 
you shouldn’t.” 

You certainly didn’t encourage me at all,” 
Mr. Morton told her, so you needn’t feel in 
the least responsible. By the way, send me a 
sample of that plasher-thing that you’re hav- 
ing made in plaster. If those fool images sell 
here, I don’t see why they shouldn’t make 
good in New York. And tell the president 
what we’ve decided about the dormitory. Tell 
him to write me if he favors the idea, and I’ll 
send a check. Good-bye.” 

“You must wait till I’ve thanked ’’be- 

gan Betty. 

“ Miss B. A.,” broke in Mr. Morton sternly, 
“ don’t you know me well enough yet to know 
that the thing I detest most in this world is to 
be thanked ? ” 


f 


CHAPTER XVIII 


A EOMANCE AND A BURGLARY 

Goodness, but I'm glad I haven’t got to 
break the news to you that I thought I must,” 
Betty told Emily, when she appeared late in 
the afternoon. And then she broke the good 
news instead, and incidentally, now that the 
danger was all over, explained how nearly the 
tea-room had come to ruin. She was bursting 
to tell Emily, who would especially appreciate 
the idea, about the new dormitory ; but the 
president of Harding must be the first one to 
hear that news. Betty left Emily in charge 
of the desk and hurried up to the campus. 
When she got back, after an altogether satis- 
factory interview, she found Nora watching in 
rapt admiration while Emily deftly mended a 
three-cornered tear in the new blue silk skirt 
that had been the pride of Nora’s heart. 

** Shure an’ she’s a wonder with her needle,” 
Nora informed Betty, and never a word more 
did she say about her notice.” It would in- 
307 


3 o 8 BETTr WALES & CO, 

deed have been a callous person who could 
bring herself to leave the Tally-ho Tea-Shop 
just when something exciting was brewing 
there all the time. First there was the news 
of Jasper J. Morton^s munificent gift to the 
college. The president passed it on at once, 
so that almost before Betty was back at her 
desk Lucile Merrifield rushed in to ask for all 
the details. 

I hear you planned the whole thing, she 
said, “ and we all think it^s perfectly splendid. 
Why didn’t any one ever think of it be- 
fore?” 

Of course Betty disclaimed all credit for Mr. 
Morton’s gift, but it was no use, especially 
when his letter to the president was printed in 
the local newspapers. He referred that gentle- 
man to Miss Wales for any further ideas and 
for detailed suggestions, since it was she who 
first interested me in Harding College and who 
originated this particular form of benefaction.” 
Her real friends loved and respected her more 
than ever for her power to bring such good 
fortune to pass, and girls like Eugenia Ford 
were immensely impressed by her evident in- 
timacy with the Mortons and her influence 


BETTT WALES & CO. 309 

over a man who was noted for never taking 
advice from anybody. 

It just happened that I got mixed up in 
it/^ Betty told Miss Ferris humbly. But 
I am glad that now, when I have the least to 
give myself, some one that I know can do so 
much. Vwe remembered all this year what 
you told me last fall about helping in one way 
if you can^t in another. It’s worked pretty 
well.” 

Just as the excitement about the dormitory 
was subsiding, Madeline stirred things up 
with a succinct telegram to Betty : Arrived at 
last.” 

Lucile and Polly and the Dutton twins 
happened to be breakfasting at the Tally-ho 
when it came, and Betty passed it over to 
them for opinions about its probable meaning. 

“ With her usual Bohemian extravagance 
she pays for seven words that she doesn’t 
send,” complained Lucile. ” Let’s answer it, 
girls. What shall we say ? ” 

“ Which way were you going ? ” suggested 
Fluffy Dutton. ** That’s to the point. And 
send it ' C. O. D.’ Then she’ll be more ex- 
plicit, next time.” 


310 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Not she/^ objected Polly. The charm 
of her is that she doesn't know the meaning 
of explicitness. But we'll send it ‘ C. O. D.' 
all the same, because we are all too poor to 
pay."' 

Polly had not anticipated Madeline's 
obvious revenge, which was to send a ninety 
word reply, unpaid, and addressed to “ Lucile- 
Polly-FlufFy-Georgia, Belden House." But 
she was quick to see her way out of the finan- 
cial difficulty. 

“ Georgia didn't do anything about sending 
it, so she pays," she decreed ; and Georgia ac- 
cepted the decision with her customary bland 
cheerfulness, only demanding in return the 
ownership of the telegram, which would make 
a beautiful trophy for her memorabil," as 
the Harding girl calls her scrap-book filled 
with souvenirs of her college days. 

The telegram was certainly a work of art 
and ingenuity, and it took art and ingenuity 
to understand it, with no punctuation marks 
and some words evidently invented by a de- 
spairing operator in a quandary over Made- 
line's perfectly illegible handwriting. But 
the general drift was that Madeline had been 


BETTT WALES & CO. 311 

on the way to ” utter despair, — because the 
heroine of her novel insisted on eloping with 
the villain instead of the hero — when she 
thought of making a story out of Patricia’s 
long-lost letters from R.” While she was 
waiting for her effort to come back to her, as 
usual, she scribbled off a college tale about a 
girl who had a desk with a secret drawer and 
didn’t know it. The first story was accepted 
— and paid for — by the magazine that had 
been the goal of her ambitions all winter, and 
the other had brought her a contract for a 
dozen college stories to be written within a 
year, on terms that made a true Bohemian 
like Madeline feel fairly dizzy with sudden 
wealth. 

This splendid sequel to the hunt for Eu- 
genia’s theme reminded Betty of the papers 
which had filled her drawer, and which, in 
the rush of other excitements, she had quite 
forgotten. If they had anything to do with 
Patricia and ^*R.” perhaps Madeline might 
write a sequel to her first story and score 
another triumph. But examination proved 
that the nearest name to Patricia mentioned 
in them was prosaic Peter, and the only “ R.” 


312 BETTT WALES & CO. 

a Robert Wales who signed one of the papers 
in the minor r61e of witness for Peter's signa- 
ture. Betty was interested at discovering her 
surname ; but prosy old documents make dull 
reading, even if witnessed by a possible an- 
cestor. However, she finally sent them to 
Madeline, for, as she told Georgia Ames, you 
never can tell what a literary person will see 
in the most commonplace things. 

Of course Madeline was overjoyed at the 
happy outcome of the Tally-ho's crisis, and so 
was Babbie, who appeared in Harding with 
the very earliest signs of spring. 

“ Florida was duller than ever this year," 
she told Bett 3 \ I've left mother in Wash- 
ington waiting for really warm weather, and 
I've come to see about my branch of the 
Tally-ho. I'm sure it needs my personal at- 
tention. Mr. Thayer certainly ought to give 
the poor stocking-makers ice-cream for stay- 
ing in and learning their lessons now that it's 
getting to be nice weather. You're not a bit 
enterprising about working up business 
through the night-school, Betty." 

I have to leave that to you," Betty told 
her solemnly. ''The regular affairs of the 


BETTT WALES & CO. 313 

tea-shop, and Mr. Morton, are all that I can 
manage. The ploshkins will be here to-mor- 
row in full force, and Mr. Morton has written 
to know if we can’t think of some small im- 
provements that can be made next week dur- 
ing the spring vacation. He can’t bear to 
wait until summer for everything.” 

As if this place wasn’t just about perfect 
now 1 ” said Babbie scornfully. 

But Mary Brooks, appearing in the midst 
of the discussion, took a different view. 

You’ve got to keep making them sit up and 
take notice of something new over and over 
and over,” she announced. That’s business. 
The ploshkins will do for one thing, but if 
the Morton millions are fairly languishing to 
be wasted on this property, you ought to be 
able to think of some features to spend them 
on. Just wait a minute — I have it — a tea- 
garden I Pagoda effects scattered over the 
side yard. Lattice work, and thatched roofs, 
Japanese screens to keep out the sun and the 
stares of the gaping crowd, and lanterns for 
evenings. I’m sure it would take.” 

“ It’s commonplace compared to what I’ve 
thought of,” declared Babbie proudly. “ What 


314 BETTT WALES & CO. 

we want is a Peter Pan Annex in our elm 
trees. I presume you’ve never been to the 
original Caf6 Robinson, Mary, but we have, 
and it’s way beyond any tea-garden.” 

Betty was in the window, peering out at 
the Harding elm trees. 

“ We could,” she declared. I always 
wondered how those two trees happened to be 
so close together, and now it seems like fate 
that they’re exactly right for a Cafe Robin- 
son.” 

And easily tall enough for three stories,” 
cried Babbie, joining her. 

** We mustn’t forget the big one-two-three 
signs for the stories,” chimed in Betty ex- 
citedly. 

Nor the basket to pull up with the extra 
things,” added Babbie. 

** We’ll tell Nora to have some extra things 
in every order so they can all have the fun of 
hauling up the basket.” 

“ The view will be perfectly lovely from 
the top,” declared Babbie. And isn’t it fine 
that our trees are in such a sheltered place, be- 
hind the little white house? ” 

Betty nodded. “ If Bob were here she’d 


BETTT WALES & CO. 315 

shin up to the top this very minute and tell 
us what you can see.’^ 

” But Babe will surely say she likes the 
second story best, because she and John made 
up their quarrel in the second story, laughed 
Babbie ; and then they settled down to tell- 
ing the bewildered Mary about the house-in- 
the-trees caf6 that they had discovered near 
Paris, and how the going-away party held 
there for Madeline had developed into an an- 
nouncement party for Babe. And of course 
Mary agreed that a Peter Pan Annex was the 
only thing for the Tally-ho Tea-Shop. 

And as Madeline wonT let me call my 
night-school a branch of the business, I shall 
write her how I thought up this,^^ Babbie do- 
clared. I will also hunt up that comical 
carpenter that Madeline had such times with 
last fall, and show him how to build it.^^ 

Now carpentry and the supervision of car- 
pentry are no work for a woman ; and the 
Tally-ho's trees were in plain sight from Mr. 
Thayer's office windows. So it was only 
natural, when Babbie's slender figure ap- 
peared on the lawn for the purpose of super- 
vision, that Mr. Thayer should join her for 


3i6 BETTT wales & CO. 

the purpose of applying an understanding 
masculine intelligence and a firm masculine 
will to the direction of the thickest-headed 
carpenter imaginable. Babbie had a careless 
fashion of running out on the rawest day 
without a wrap. This made it all the more 
necessary for Mr. Thayer to come over, 
bringing his sweater to throw across her 
shoulders. 

I saw your Cousin Austin at Palm 
Beach, Babbie had explained shortly after 
her arrival in Harding, ‘‘and then at St. 
Augustine. At Miami he took us on the 
loveliest cruise, and I drove his car at sixty 
miles an hour on the beach at Ormond. It 
was ripping fun. Not many men will risk 
your losing your head and smashing them up.” 

“ And donT you ever lose your head ? ” in- 
quired Mr. Thayer blandly. 

“ Not over your Cousin Austin,” said Bab- 
bie, with a fiash of a smile. 

After that Mr. Thayer came oftener and 
stayed longer. Babbie assured Betty and 
Emily Davis that they had no idea how com- 
plicated a Peter Pan Annex seemed to an un- 
traveled carpenter of Harding. 


BETTT WALES & CO, 317 

** We’re so afraid it won’t have the real 
French air,” she said. ** That’s why we spend 
such ages in staring at it from all possible 
angles.” 

“ And then it must be perfectly secure,” she 
explained on another occasion, just after she 
and Mr. Thayer had sat for almost an hour in 
the top story, among the branches that now 
made a most beautiful feathery screen. 
** Think how horrible it would be if the rail- 
ing was too low and some silly little freshman 
fell out, or if the floor wasn’t strong enough 
and gave way. Mr. Thayer knows all about 
such things. He’s taking a lot of interest. 
We never could have done it properly except 
for him.” 

But in spite of the accommodating slow- 
ness and stupidity of the untraveled carpen- 
ter, the Peter Pan Annex was flnished at last. 

I’m a candidate now for the Perfect 
Patron’s Society,” Mr. Thayer told Betty, so 
I want to give an opening-day tea up on the 
top floor for all the owners, managers, assist- 
ant managers, and small sisters. It’s to be 
this afternoon at four. I also want another 
stocking factory party, and hadn’t we better 


3i8 BETTT wales & CO. 

get it off our hands early, before commence- 
ment begins to loom up ahead ? Mr. Thayer 
looked very hard at Betty. I suppose you 
are terribly busy ? ” 

'' Terribly,'' returned Betty gravely, '' but I 
think Babbie will help." 

Babbie would not. 

I'm going to your Cousin Austin's Adiron- 
dack camp," she explained, to see spring 
come in the woods. Mother is the chaperon, 
and I have an awful suspicion that I am a 
sort of guest of honor. Anyway, the spring 
part of it appeals to me. And secondly, 
mother has been solemnly promised a reunion 
with her long-lost daughter." 

Later in the day Babbie, in a kimono, 
which is the attire of confidential intercourse, 
complained that Mummy was as bad as 
Margot about a multi-millionaire," and that 
she hated the woods in spring ; they were 
always hot, and smoky from forest fires, there 
was no shade and no shooting, and the canoes 
leaked from being dry all winter. 

'' Moreover," added Babbie wearily, a “ so- 
called camp, with a butler and three other 
men, and a sunken garden, is going too much 


BETTT WALES & CO. 319 

for me. But when mummy really insists, the 
laws of the Medes and Persians aren’t in it.” 
She gave a funny little mirthless laugh. “ I 
suppose one ought to be very sure that one 
isn’t foolishly prejudiced against the popular 
idea of the idle rich.” 

So Emily planned the factory party with 
much energy and originality, and Mr. Thayer 
was duly grateful. But his rare smile came 
only when Betty showed him a note from 
Babbie, inquiring carefully about the date of 
the party and stating in a postscript, with 
vehement underlining, that she never wanted 
to see spring come in anybody’s woods again. 

There are mosquitoes, and other things 
much worse,” ended Babbie enigmatically, 
with the blackest possible lines under the last 
two words. 

Suppose you let me write her about the 
date of the party ? ” suggested Mr. Thayer. 
** Then you needn’t bother.” 

Evidently the change in correspondents did 
not displease Babbie seriously, for she was 
back on the appointed day, with a bewitch- 
ing smile, flashed out from beneath a bewitch- 
ing hat, for all her stocking factory friends, 


320 BETTT WALES & CO. 

including Mr. Thayer. The party was a sort 
of spring fete held out on the grounds of the 
factory, in the late afternoon and early even- 
ing. There were folk dances in costume, 
national songs, and old-country games. Emily 
had made all the guests feel a tremendous 
pride in doing whatever they could to enter- 
tain the rest, and everything, from the Irish 
bag-pipe music to the Russian mazurkas, went 
off with great spirit. 

It was while Jimmie OTerrel was dancing 
a jig with all his might and main, and 
with all eyes fastened upon his flying feet, 
that Betty, happening to glance across the 
grounds, saw a bewitching hat slip swiftly 
from the fence top down on the tea-shop side. 
But she had no proof that Mr. Thayer was 
concerned in the disappearance of the hat, 
until the smallest sister sought her out im- 
portantly, a little later. 

“ Do you want to know what I think ? 
she asked. ** Well, I think Babbie and Mr. 
Thayer are in love.^^ 

''Why do you think that?'' asked Betty 
laughingly. 

" Because," explained Dorothy, " I ran up 


BETTT WALES & CO. 321 

in the Peter Pan Annex just now to see how 
small people look ’way down here from ’way 
up there, and I jumped ’most out of my skin 
’cause there those two sat. They never saw 
me at all, and he had his arm around her and 
she didn’t care. She was smiling about it. 
So I came straightaway. Was that right ? ” 
“ Of course,” laughed Betty. You hadn’t 
been invited.” 

I was invited to Mr. Thayer’s party, 
though,” objected Dorothy, and now he isn’t 
here. He’s over at our house. That’s queer.” 

Up in the Peter Pan Annex Mr. Thayer 
was saying to Babbie, ‘‘ I must go back before 
any one misses me.” 

“ I can’t go back,” said Babbie sadly. ** 1 
tore my dress dreadfully getting over the 
fence. You shouldn’t have made me do it.” 

1 didn’t make you,” retorted Mr. Thayer. 

I particularly advised you to go around.” 

** Exactly,” agreed Babbie, and that made 
me want to go over. Dear me ! Do you sup- 
pose we shall ever really quarrel on account of 
my not wanting to give in to your chin ? ” 
‘‘No, because I shall always want to give 
in to yours,” Mr. Thayer told her. 


322 BETTT WALES & CO. 

'' But I shouldn't let you give in always,” 
declared Babbie. “ I should take turns giv- 
ing in.” 

Don't say ‘ should,' ” objected Mr. Thayer. 

Say * shall.' Haven't we settled it ? ” 

Of course.” Babbie gave a comical little 
sigh. It feels so queer to be settled — and 
so very nice. Now go back to your party, 
and I'll get Nora to lend me some pins so I 
can go back too. Oh, and we'll tell Betty, 
shan't we, right away ? ” 

Under the circumstances Betty wasn't ex- 
tremely surprised, but she was extremely 
pleased. 

“Now our tea-room is as successful as the 
famous one that belonged to the cousins of 
the girl who lives over Mrs. Bob,” she 
laughed. “ It has produced an engagement, 
and a literary career to match the artist per- 
son’s.” 

Babbie frowned. “ You mustn't leave 
yourself out, Betty. You're mixed up in 
everything, and I don't believe that other 
tea-room was half as nice as this or made half 
as much money.” 

“ Neither do I,” agreed Betty happily. 


BETTT^WALES Sf CO. 323 

I’m perfectly satisfied with my profits, 
though they’re not so extraordinary as yours 
and Madeline’s. Every morning when I un- 
lock the door I’m in such a hurry to look in 
and see that everything is all right and all 
here. It’s so pretty and I love it so, that I’m 
afraid it will vanish some night like a fairy 
palace.” 

It was odd that the very next morning 
when Betty unlocked the door, she should 
find that some marauder had been there be- 
fore her. She had locked her desk the night 
before, as she always did. But during the 
night the lid had been forced back, the 
papers in the pigeonholes tossed out on to 
the floor, the drawers opened and emptied. 

Her face was white and frightened as she 
rushed over to find Babbie, who was staying 
in the little white house this time. 

The tea-room has been robbed ! ” she 
gasped. “ Come over there, quick.” 

Babbie, who always breakfasted late, was 
pinning her collar, and she gave a start that 
jabbed the pin straight into her thumb. 
“ Ouch, but that hurt ! ” she groaned. 
** What did they take ? ” 


324 BETTT WALES & CO. 

I was so frightened I didn^t stop to see. 
I thought they might be hiding in the loft.'' 

Babbie dropped a skirt over her head, and 
started down the stairs, hooking it up as she 
ran. 

“ They wouldn't do that. They'd want to 
escape in the dark," she called back encoura- 
gingly. 

But at the door of the tea-shop she paused. 
** There is something moving up there," she 
whispered cautiously. " See ! Over in that 
corner by the curtain." 

Betty couldn't see anything moving, but 
when Babbie started in a hasty retreat toward 
the little white house she banged to the big 
door and followed. Just then Bridget came 
waddling breathlessly up the hill. 

‘‘Wat's up* now. Misses?" she called. 
“ Why are yez afther shuttin' of me out? " 

Bridget’s fat figure was very reassuring. 
Simultaneously Betty and Babbie ran toward 
it, gasping out the news. 

“ In the loft ? Well, we’ll finish ’em thin," 
Bridget seized a brass-handled poker, the 
latest addition to the tea-shop’s stock of an- 
tiques. Then she laid it down again, carefully 


BETTT WALES & CO. 325 

removed her neat black bonnet, and as care- 
fully laid it on a table. ** No use of spilin’ 
that in a fight. Come along now wid yez,” 
she ordered. 

Betty seized an umbrella that some one had 
opportunely left in a corner, and Babbie chose 
as weapon a tall brass candlestick. Then the 
procession started, Bridget waddling and 
wheezing in front, Betty, still white with 
terror, following, and Babbie, beginning to 
smile again at the absurdity of the search, 
bringing up the rear. But they hunted con- 
scientiously, exploring every hiding-place 
into which a man could possibly squeeze him- 
self and some that would have cramped a self- 
respecting cat. 

‘‘ They ain’t here at all,” announced 
Bridget at last, removing her eye from a knot- 
hole in the wall into which she had been spy- 
ing laboriously, and standing upright with 
more puffings and pantings. “ It’s down- 
stairs we go. Thim stalls are foine for 
burgulars, and mebbe they’re in me kitchen 
this minute, ating up me angil-food that ’ud 
riz light as a feather. Oh me, oh me.” 

“ They aren’t here now. I’m sure they’re 


326 BETTT WALES & CO, 

not/^ protested Babbie. ‘‘ Think how absurd 
it would be for a burglar to hide in here, just 
waiting around to be caught. I'm going to 
see what we've lost." 

Bridget persisted in completing her search, 
and Betty would not desert her. But when 
the fat cook was satisfied and had sat down to 
fan herself into a semblance of calmness that 
would make possible the successful cooking of 
waffles for the “ Why-Get-Up-to-Breakfast 
Club," Betty joined Babbie, and together they 
straightened out and looked over the papers 
from the desk. 

“ There’s nothing gone. Of course they 
wouldn't want grocer’s bills, even if they 
were receipted,” Betty declared. “ But I left 
six dollars and thirty cents all rolled up in one 
of the top drawers. Emily forgot it when she 
went to the bank. I suppose they’ve got that.” 

Drawer wide open, and one — five — yes, 
six dollars and thirty cents all here," Babbie 
reported. That’s very queer. Burglars that 
hunt as hard as this and then don’t take the 
money when they find it are certainly par- 
ticular. Well, did they like our old brasses, 
I wonder, or our plated silver spoons ? " 


BETTT WALES & CO. 327 

But the candlesticks — except the one Bab- 
bie had seized upon — and the Flemish lamps 
were all in place. The gargoyles grinned 
serenely from their accustomed niches. The 
silver drawer had not been tampered with. 
In the kitchen the angel-food was just as 
Bridget had left it. 

“ It’s a mystery,” declared Babbie at last, 
a thrilling and impenetrable mystery. 
When do burglars not burgle ? ” 

When they are frightened off,” answered 
Betty prosaically. 

“ But it wouldn’t have taken a second to 
dip out that money,” Babbie objected. “ It 
was all mussed up, so some one’s hand must 
have been in there, since you left it in a 
roll ” 

Yes, in a tight little wad,” put in Betty. 

** And that some one could have pulled 
back his hand full just as quickly as empty,” 
Babbie went on. I tell you it’s a horrible 
mystery. I’m going to ask Robert to come 
over this minute and see about it.” 

Meanwhile Emily, who had been doing the 
day’s marketing, arrived ; but neither she nor 
Mr. Thayer could solve the “ thrilling, ina- 


328 BETTT WALES & CO. 

penetrable, horrible mystery, though Mr. 
Thayer found jimmy marks on the shed 
door, and that, as Betty said, proved beyond 
a doubt that the burglars had been the real 
thing. 

Real, but very eccentric, laughed Emily. 
Let’s hope that all the Tally-ho’s burglars 
will belong to the same accommodating tribe.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE AMAZING ME. SMITH AND OTHER 
AMAZEMENTS 

“ Rachel Morrison ? No, not yet, but she's 
coming. Everybody’s coming.” 

“ K. Kittredge is as comical as ever. Ask 
her about her prize English pupil.” 

“ Do you know, you’re glad to see every- 
body these days. Why, Jean Eastman rushed 
up to me, and I fell upon her neck. Digs 
and freaks and snobs and all, they belong to 
19 — and the good old days.” 

Do you feel that way too? I wondered if 
any one else had noticed the horrid little 
changes. I suppose things will change, but 
I wish ” 

“ Nonsense I Look at this tea-shop. It’s a 
change all right, and for my part I don’t see 
how we should live without it.” 

'' Oh, but this is different. This is 19 — ’s 
very own.” 


329 


330 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Where’s Betty Wales, anyway ? She’s so 
busy you can’t get within a mile of her.” 

Thus 19 — , over its ices in the Peter Pan 
Annex. The Tally-ho Tea-Shop was 19 — ’s 
headquarters, official and unofficial. There 
they breakfasted, lunched, tea-ed, and dined ; 
there held informal sings ” and rallies, and 
there on the last evening of the festal week 
they were to eat their class supper. The tenth 
year class were to eat theirs in the loft. The 
fifteeners had engaged the first floor of the 
Peter Pan Annex, and the six graduates of the 
very oldest class were to lunch up in the top 
floor, among the tree-tops. No wonder that 
Betty was busy and had to be caught on the. 
wing and forcibly detained by 19 — friends. 
Commencement guests fairly beset the Tally- 
ho at meal-times. Between meals old girls and 
belated undergraduates thronged the tables. 
Betty could hardly believe her eyes when she 
counted up one day’s returns from the Peter 
Pan Annex. As for ploshkins, the first order 
had sold out almost before it was unpacked, 
and every class in college had wanted to adopt 
the ploshkin for its class animal. But Betty 
explained that 19 — had already secured it. 


BETTT WALES & CO, 331 

Madeline had had that happy thought, of 
course, and Kate Denise, who was chairman 
of the supper committee, had capped it by or- 
dering miniature ploshkins for favors and a 
mammoth one for a centerpiece. Then Made- 
line had written a ploshkin song which was so 
much cleverer than ‘^The Bay Where the 
Ploshkin Bides,’^ that the Glee Club groaned 
with envy. There was also a 19 — song called 
“ Tea-Shop,’^ and one called “ The House of 
Peter Pan,’^ so that Betty enterprises were 
much in the public eye, if she was not. 

It was dreadfully hard to stick to work, when 
you knew that 19 — was having a ‘‘Stunt- 
doers’ Meet” under the apple-trees on the back 
campus, or Dramatic Club’s Alumnse tea, also 
with “ stunts,” was on in the Students’ Build- 
ing. The only consolation lay in the fact that 
your dearest friends calmly cut these surpass- 
ing attractions, to which some of them had 
traveled thousands of miles, just to sit by the 
cashier’s desk in the Tally-ho Tea-Shop, and 
talk to the cashier in her intervals of compar- 
ative leisure, waiting patiently while she made 
change, found tables for helpless or hurried 
customers, took “rush orders” to the kitchen 


332 BETTT WALES & CO. 

when the waitresses were all too busy, and in 
general made things go '' in the steady, plod- 
ding, systematic fashion that her gay little soul 
loathed. But she realized that she had made 
a success of the Tally-ho just by keeping at it, 
and she was going home next week with little 
Dorothy and “ money in her pocket,” in WilTs 
slangy phraseology, leaving Emily to take 
charge of the improvements which Madeline 
and Mr. Morton had planned on a scale of 
elegance that fairly took away Betty’s breath, 
and of the remnants of business that would be 
left when the hungry Harding girls had de- 
parted, and sleepy silence reigned on the de- 
serted campus. 

Eugenia Ford came in one afternoon early 
in commencement week, looking very meek and 
unhappy. 

I’m going home to-night. I was foolish 
to plan to stay over, but a senior I know asked 
me to, and I thought of course she meant it. 
And she only let me entertain her youngest 
brother part of one morning, and made me 
give her my ticket to the senior play.” 

What a shame ! ” Betty sympathized. 

But I was to blame. I was a goose,” Eu- 


BETTT WALES & CO, 333 

genia repeated. “ I ought to have known that 
she only wanted to get something out of me. 
If I rush up to people all of a sudden, when 
I’ve never noticed them much before, I gener- 
ally want to get something out of them. It’s 
naturally the same with other girls.” 

Betty laughed. Better stick to the ones 
who are always nice to you — your real friends,” 
she advised. 

But then you won’t get on,” objected Eu- 
genia wisely. “ They say you’ve got to scheme 
a lot to be in things here. You’ve got to make 
yourself known.” 

Why not just try to be worth knowing? ” 
Betty suggested. My friend Rachel Morrison 
was as quiet and — and — unpushing as could 
be, but she was so bright and nice and thought- 
ful for other people and so reliable that every- 
body wanted her for a friend.” 

Eugenia sighed. I’m not bright or 
thoughtful for others. I — oh, dear, this isn’t 
what I came to talk about. Miss Wales. I — 
I stopped to say good-bye to Dorothy. I — she 
— we made up. I mean — we hadn’t exactly 
quarreled, so we couldn’t exactly make up. 
But I felt so ashamed. Being mean to little 


334 BETTT WALES & CO. 

girls makes you feel so ashamed — even if they 
don’t know about it. Miss Wales, I’ve heard 
about the dormitory for poor girls — Morton 
Hall. When I went home in the spring my 
father said that as far as he could see you’d 
taught me about all the sensible things I’d 
learned this year. He asked me what you’d 
like for a present. I couldn’t decide, but 
when I heard about the dormitory I wrote 
and asked him to send you a check for extra 
things, you know, for the furnishings, or to 
pay part of some girl’s board. I thought per- 
haps you’d rather have that — from us — than 
something for yourself.” She put three 
checks into Betty’s hand. Two of my best 
friends sent the others. It was what they 
had left from their spring term allowances. 
Susanna would like hers to go for a 
picture in the house parlor. Molly doesn’t 
care.” 

Eugenia rushed through all this informa- 
tion so fast that Betty had no chance to inter- 
rupt, and at the end she was speechless with 
surprise. She glanced at the checks. The 
smallest was for a hundred dollars. Together 
they would provide endless '' extras ” for 


BETTT WALES & CO. 335 

Morton Hall, or help dozens of poor girls to 
make both ends meet. 

“ Oh, Eugenia, you are a dear,^’ she cried 
impulsively. ** And your father is a dear too, 
and these other girls. But why not give it 
right to the college yourselves? 

** Because you41 think of something nicer 
than they would to do with it. Anyway it's 
a sort of a present to you — father’s part. 
You’re just to say it’s from friends of yours. 
We don’t want our names mentioned. You’re 
the one who put the idea into my head. 
We’re not doing it for anything but to please 
you, and Susanna and Molly because they 
liked the idea, and what was the use keeping 
over their allowances ? ” 

Betty was glad of this explanation. She 
had tried to choke back an ugly little suspi- 
cion that this gift might be a part of Eugenia’s 
campaign to make herself known,” by having 
her father’s name linked with Mr. Morton’s 
as a benefactor of Harding. Now she was 
reassured on that point, and she thanked 
Eugenia again, trying to make her feel how 
much the money would accomplish. 

I suppose that’s so,” Eugenia agreed. 


336 BETTT WALES & CO., 

“ and we shan’t any of us miss it. Lots of 
the girls could give away more than they do, 
Miss Wales, only they never think of it.” 

“ It’s the same way about helping the ones 
who are rather left out to have some good 
times,” Betty put in eagerly. '' It doesn’t 
take much effort or time from your own fun, 
and it means such a lot to them.” 

“ Yes,” Eugenia agreed soberly. ** I’m 
going to try to be more like that next year. 
It’s horrid to be as snippy as most of our 
crowd are. Some awfully nice girls are left 
out of things for one reason or another. We 
should all have more fun, I guess, if we all 
had it,” ended Eugenia rather obscurely. 
“ Good-bye, Miss Wales, until next fall.” 

Betty was wondering busily whether she 
should be back next fall, for mother had just 
written that father’s business was improving 
fast and that he hoped to have the family 
together again soon, when the supper com- 
mittee appeared to inquire about the shape of 
the 19 — table and to consult the president 
about the seating arrangements. Betty was 
deep in the problem of how to get all the 
speakers on one side of the table and yet not 


BEITT WALES & CO. 337 

separate them from their friends, when a 
strange gentleman walked in and came 
straight up to Betty^s desk. 

“ Miss Wales ? he inquired in businesslike 
tones. 

I am Miss Wales.’' Betty stood up behind 
the desk, and Kate Denise and the rest with- 
drew to a window until the man should have 
finished his business with Betty. 

My name is Smith,” he went on. I re- 
present Furbush, a Boston antique shop. 
You’ve heard of it, I presume? ” 

Betty had not heard of Furbush’s. 

Well, that’s not vital,” Mr. Smith told her 
smilingly, “ because we buy on a cash basis, so 
it’s not a question of our credit. I should 
have said that I’m up here buying old furni- 
ture. I heard you had a rather good desk 
that you might like to sell, and some pieces 
of brass.” 

Yes, we have those things, but we don’t 
care to sell any of them,” Betty told him 
shortly. The idea of any one’s coming to 
buy the Tally-ho’s most prized features, and 
in commencement week too, when every 
minute was precious. Mr. Smith’s hand was 


338 BETTT WALES & CO. 

on the desk, but now he looked down as if he 
had but just discovered the fact. 

'' Oh, this is the desk I was told about, 
isn’t it ? ” he said, and came around to 
Betty’s side to see it to better advantage. 

It’s a good piece — a very good piece. I’ll 
give you a good price for it. Miss Wales. 
Just name your figure.” 

I couldn’t, for the desk belongs to the 
firm — the tea-shop firm,” Betty answered. 
** And if we should even decide to sell, — 
though I don’t think we shall — two friends 
of ours are ready to give us the full value of 
the desk.” 

Now what would you consider the full 
value of the desk. Miss Wales?” Mr. Smith 
asked, in a tone that was meant to be half 
persuasive and half scornful of Miss Wales’s 
knowledge of antiques. 

I don’t know exactly, and it doesn’t mat- 
ter at all, because we don’t wish to sell the 
desk or anything else that we have.” Betty’s 
tone was meant to be wholly anxious for the 
immediate departure of the importunate Mr. 
Smith. 

“I’ll give you four hundred dollars for 


BETTT WALES & CO. 339 

that desk, Miss Wales. That^s about five 
times what you paid for it, I guess, and twice 
what your friends would give. Furbush^s 
can pay top prices for a thing they like, be- 
cause their customers are the top-price sort.*' 
Betty was inwardly amazed, both at the 
sum Mr. Smith offered and at the accuracy of 
his guesses about the price Madeline had paid 
and the advance Mrs. Bob had offered. But 
she reflected that if Furbush's, of which she 
had never heard, would pay four hundred 
dollars for the desk to-day they probably 
would pay that or nearly that later in the 
week. Babbie was off* walking with Mr. 
Thayer, whom she was keeping very much in 
the background because only Betty and the 
other two B's were to know of the engage- 
ment until class supper night, when Babbie 
meant to run around the table with the other 
engaged girls. And Madeline had not yet 
torn herself away from her beloved studio 
apartment, where her latest diversion was 
papering her study with rejection slips " 
from over-fastidious editors. The desk cer- 
tainly could not be sold at any price without 
Madeline’s consent. So in the face of Mr. 


340 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Smith's munificent offer, Betty preserved a 
stony silence which finally evoked a low 
whistle from that gentleman. 

All right/' he said, slipping his hand lov- 
ingly across the carved panels and the in- 
laid fronts of the little drawers. ‘‘ If you feel 
that way about it, Furbush must do without. 
Now have you the same objections to selling 
me a cup of tea ? " 

** Certainly you can have tea here," Betty 
told him. “ If you will sit down at one of 
the tables you will be served directly." Then 
she turned her attention to Kate and the 
others, and forgot all about Mr. Smith, who 
chose a retired nook in Flying Hoof's stall, 
ordered tea with three kinds of sandwiches, 
pulled a book out of his pocket, and ex- 
plained to the waitress that he liked to eat 
slowly and read, without being disturbed. 

The supper committee worked out its seat- 
ing plan and departed, highly indignant that 
Betty wouldn’t come up to the campus with 
them to pay calls on the lesser stars of the 
senior play cast, who were on exhibition in 
their make-ups. 

“ I'm lucky to get off to-night for the 


BETTT WALES & CO. 341 

play,’^ Betty told them sternly, and in the 
pause before dinner she tried to concentrate 
her mind on preparing a menu for the next 
day. She needed to consult Bridget about 
several items, and as the tea-room was quite 
empty and she would only be gone a minute 
she slipped out without calling in Emily, who 
was busy in the kitchen, to take her place at 
the desk. When she came back she was 
startled to find her chair occupied by Mr. 
Smith, who had opened several drawers and 
was poking the fan-shaped panel, trying 
vainly to push it to one side. Betty stared 
at him for a moment in amazement, then she 
called out loudly, “ I thought you had gone, 
Mr. Smith,’’ keeping meanwhile close to the 
kitchen door which separated her from 
Bridget, Nora, and Emily, for she had no 
idea what a man might do when you caught 
him robbing your desk. 

But Mr. Smith was not even disconcerted. 

Oh, no. Miss Wales,” he began easily. 
** Don’t you remember I haven’t paid for my 
grub ? I’m not the sort of man to go off with- 
out paying my bill. I’d finished, and you 
weren’t here, so I was taking a last lingering 


342 BETTT WALES & CO. 

look at your lovely desk. Seems to me as if 
there might be a secret drawer behind one of 
these panels.’^ He tapped the panels gently, 
one after another, with his knuckles. 

“ If we ever decide to sell you the desk, Mr. 
Smith, you can examine it as closely as you 
like,’^ Betty told him with dignity. ** But now 
I must ask you to leave it alone.^^ 

Oh, very well,^’ Mr. Smith answered ab- 
sently, still fingering the carved panel in the 
center. 

As Betty watched him indignantly, a 
dreadful thought came into her head. The 
three checks that Eugenia had given her 
were on the desk. She had tucked them 
carelessly under the blotter, meaning to take 
them out again as soon as Kate and the others 
had gone. Betty did not stop to consider how 
useless they would be to Mr. Smith. She 
only refiected that he was certainly dishonor- 
able, and probably dishonest, and that the 
checks were a sacred trust. Mr. Smith was 
absorbed in the arrangements of the desk. 
Betty slipped silently through the kitchen 
door and approached Bridget. 

'‘I'm not sure, but I think there's a burglar 


BETTT WALES & CO. 343 

in there/^ she whispered. “ He^s at the desk, 
and he won’t get away from it. I want you 
to scare him into another part of the room, 
and then bar the door until I’ve found out 
whether or not he’s stolen anything. Do you 
understand ? ” 

“ Aisy,” returned Bridget calmly, wiping 
her hands on her apron, and seizing a poker 
and a rolling-pin she marched boldly into the 
tea-room. 

“ Scat I ” she hissed into the ear of the 
astonished Mr. Smith, who jumped back like 
a frightened rabbit when he saw the poker 
and the rolling-pin brandished dangerously 
about his head. In a minute Bridget had 
him prisoned in Flying Hoof’s stall, in front 
of which she danced back and forth, waving 
her improvised weapons franctically. 

I’ve got him,” she called triumphantly to 
Betty. An’ if he’s a burgular fur shure. I’ll 
kape him safe while Miss Emily do be runnin’ 
for the perlice.” 

It took Betty only an instant to put her 
hand under the blotter, and there, just as she 
had left them, were the three checks. 

Oh, Bridget, he’s not a burglar,” she cried. 


344 BETTT WALES & CO. 

“ The money is here all right. Let him out 
the door. I^m sorry, Mr. Smith,” she added 
with dignity, but you certainly acted like 
a thief, so you mustnT blame me, since I knew 
that there was a large amount of money in 
the desk, for treating you like one.” 

“ Indade it’s a good whack yez desarve for 
troublin’ me lovely young ladies,” declared 
Bridget, reluctantly moving to one side to let 
her prisoner pass out. 

Mr. Smith, scowling angrily, walked across 
to the desk that had been the cause of all the 
trouble, and threw down the slip Nora had 
given him and the change to pay it. 

It’s a pity if a gentleman can’t satisfy his 
idle curiosity about the date of an antique 
desk without being taken for a sneak thief,” 
he declaimed angrily, as he started off. 

“ It’s a pity when a gintlemin ain’t got 
enough bisniss of his owm to mind so it’ll kape 
his nose out of other people’s private propity,” 
cried Bridget after him, and then she turned 
her attention to comforting Betty, who had 
been dreadfully frightened by the episode. 

‘‘ I almost wish the desk was sold,” she de- 
clared with a sob in her voice. “ It’s always 


BETTT WALES & CO. 345 

making us trouble with its queer old secret 
drawers and the people that try to steal out of 
it — and don’t/^ 

** It^s a foine desk that burgulars can’t burgle, 
I’m thinkin’,” Bridget declared consolingly. 

But it attracts burglars,” Betty objected, 
** and being frightened is almost as bad as be- 
ing really robbed.” 

Madeline, who came that evening, fairly 
gloated in the mysterious robbery and the 
strange conduct of Mr. Smith. It’s like liv- 
ing in a detective story,” she declared. “ Mr. 
Smith was hunting for something, and so 
were the burglars, — something so valuable 
that they turned up their noses at six good 
round dollars. Those old papers can’t be 
valuable. Therefore it stands to reason that 
there must be something else in there that 
we haven’t found — jewels, maybe, worth a 
king’s ransom. As soon as I’ve embraced 
dear old 19 — , I’ll have another hunt.” 

But embracing dear old 19 — was a more ab- 
sorbing process than Madeline had counted it. 
Class supper night, the grand wind-up of Hard- 
ing commencement, arrived, and she had not 
given another thought to the hidden treasure. 


CHAPTER XX 


A FINAL EXCITEMENT 

At first Betty had not seen how she could 
possibly be spared from business on the 
most strenuous night in the Tally-ho’s his- 
tory, with three class suppers being eaten at 
once in its precincts, a chef from Boston lord- 
ing it over Bridget in the kitchen, — or trying 
to, and a little army of strange waitresses to 
be shown the way about. But 19 — was 
firm ; its president must and should sit 
through the whole supper on the right hand 
of Eleanor Watson, who was toast-mistress 
again this year ; must present the mam- 
moth ploshkin to T. Reed’s adorable young 
son, and the silver loving-cup to the real 
class-baby, the daughter of a certain Mary 
Jones, who had never in all her college 
course done anything less commonplace than 
her name. On the day after commencement 
she had married a Harding law^^er, and her 
346 


BETTT WALES & CO, 347 

living in town made the display of her very 
small baby possible. 

“ It’s not every first year reunion that has 
one right here on hand to be inspected,” de- 
clared Katherine Kittridge. “ So here’s to 
Mary Jones, if she wasn’t a highly exciting 
member of our highly exciting class.” 

So Betty finally yielded to 19 — ’s demands 
for her own and Emily’s release from duty, 
put the management of the suppers into 
Nora’s capable hands, and resolved to wear 
the rose-colored satin dress that she had 
bought in Paris and to forget for the one 
night that she was anything but a lady of 
leisure” come to her class reunion, just like 
Bob and Babe and Roberta, without a care in 
the world or a thought beyond the joy of 
being back ” with 19 — . And partly, no 
doubt, because the supper was so good and so 
well served, she succeeded. Eleanor was 
lovelier than ever, and her little speeches 
cleverer ; Bob, on her other side, was jollier, 
Helen Adams more amusingly sedate, K. 
more delightfully absurd. The toasts were 
as superfine ” as all 19 — ’s stunts, the songs 
went with a fine dash, the ploshkins made a 


348 BETTT WALES & CO. 

decided hit, and T. Reed's little T. — it stood 
for Thomas instead of Theresa — was so dear 
and comical, trying to pull his big ploshkin 
off the table, and finally insisting on a chair 
for it between himself and Mother T.," 
as everybody called her now. Betty realized 
suddenly that she hadn't had many “ good 
times " this year, and that she had missed 
them. Then she forgot everything but the 
perfectly splendid time she was having right 
now, in the old care-free Betty Wales fashion. 
She counted the minutes jealously, and 
sighed all to herself when the last toast was 
over — K's comical eulogy of “ Our Working 
Women." 

But with the end of the supper the night's 
fun was only well started. Up the stairs to 
the loft, bearing the ploshkins solemnly 
above their heads, climbed 19 — , to sing to 
the little tenth year table ; then out to the 
Peter Pan Annex to salute the fifteeners and 
pelt them with green carnations. The third 
year reunion was up in the gym ; the seniors 
were in the Student's Building. ' Off trailed 
19 — , to the tune of the ploshkin song, to re- 
turn en masse the serenades that had en- 


BETTT WALES & CO. 349 

livened its own supper. Up-stairs the tenth 
year people were not half-way through their 
toasts. Down-stairs Nora turned the lamps 
low, so that they would burn until 19 — came 
back for its forgotten wraps and its last good- 
byes. It was a breathlessly hot night, so 
Nora left all the windows open, and she and 
Bridget, their duties ended, went home to 
well-earned rest. 

It was long after midnight when 19 — , hav- 
ing serenaded all the suppers, all their favor- 
ite faculty, all their ** loved spots on the 
campus, came back in scattered ranks and 
without music, for they had sung themselves 
hoarse, to the Tally-ho. The other classes had 
left, and the tea-shop was dusky and silent. 
Betty happened to be marching in the front 
rank with Babe and Roberta. 

I ought to have come back ahead and 
lighted up for you,” she said. I thought 
Nora would stay until we got here, but it^s ter- 
ribly late, and I suppose she got sleepy.” 

We can hurry ahead and do it now just as 
well,” declared Babe, and the three walked 
swiftly up the winding path and flung open 
the heavy door. 


350 BETTT WALES & CO. 

Though the lamps were turned low, they 
gave light enough to see by easily, and there, 
sitting at the desk, bending over the pigeon- 
holes, was a tall woman wearing a dark dress 
and a dark, drooping hat, that, in her present 
attitude, completely hid her face. The three 
girls discovered the intruder at exactly the 
same minute. 

More Blunderbuss,’^ murmured Babe, re- 
membering the mysterious robberies of senior 
year. ** Do you know her, Betty ? ” 

No,” Betty answered quickly. 

“Then I’ll just hang on to her till we see 
what she’s taken,” cried Babe impulsively, 
and launched herself fearlessly at the stranger, 
while Roberta screamed ; a relay of girls ap- 
pearing in the door just then rushed to Babe’s 
assistance, and Betty, not knowing what else 
to do, turned up all the lamps. 

The tall, black-gowned woman was unusu- 
ally strong, but she was no match for eight 
stalwart and determined members of 19 — . 

“ I give up. Don’t smother me so,” she 
cried after a minute in a queer, deep voice. 
Her hat had been knocked off in the struggle, 
and the short hair and unmistakably mascu- 


BETTT WALES & CO, 351 

line features that were revealed matched the 
deep voice and the manly strength. 

** Why, she's a — a man," cried Roberta, and 
redoubled her shrieks of terror. 

The man, still held firmly by his captors, 
struggled to his feet. Shut up, can't you ? " 
he demanded angrily of Roberta. “ Call the 
police if you want to, but don't wake all the 
dogs and babies in the neighborhood, and for 
pity's sake " — to the others — ‘‘ don't squeeze 
my arms so. It's not ladylike." 

Almost unconsciously the girls loosened 
their hold a little, and the prisoner, making 
one supreme effort, dashed straight at the terri- 
fied Roberta, who stood near the door, and in 
another moment was out in the dark, running 
like a deer for the factory fence. When he 
climbed over the top, they could just see that 
he had left his skirt behind. 

Well, this is a crazy ending for a sedate 
little class supper," declared Babe, sorrowfully 
inspecting a great tear in her lace-trimmed 
skirt. 

Wasn't it queer how, when you knew it was 
a man, you couldn't hold so tight? " questioned 
Christy Mason. 


352 BETTT WALES & CO. 

We ought to have chased him/’ cried 
Roberta, to the vast amusement of the rest. 

“ It wouldn’t pay,” Betty put in, for there’s 
nothing of value here that he could take away, 
and nothing in the desk that any one would 
want.” She stopped to examine it. Why I ” 
she cried in dismay. “It’s been sawed off, all 
the top part, and put back again. Look, 
Madeline ! ” 

Sure enough, the top of the desk had been 
sawed olf just below the drawers, and then cut 
into three sections, which had finally been laid 
in place again, so that at first sight the damage 
would not be noticed. 

“ The vandal I ” cried Madeline. “ He’s 
ruined our prize feature. And what was his 
idea? Oh, I seel He couldn’t find the 
springs, and this was his hateful way of getting 
into the secret drawers. Do let’s count them. 
Two — four — that’s all. Then there wasn’t an- 
other drawer filled with a king’s ransom in 
pearls for him to make off with. That’s cer- 
tainly a relief.” 

“ Oh, Madeline, do tell us what you mean,” 
came with one voice from the crowd of wide- 
eyed girls ; and with many promptings from 


BETTT WALES & CO. 353 

Betty and Babbie Madeline told the story of 
the secret drawers through all its exciting 
stages, ending with her theory of the hidden 
jewels as a possible motive for all the queer 
robberies. 

But that was evidently a little too won- 
derful,” she added, though for that mat- 
ter the real explanation may be even more 
remarkable. I await suggestions.” 

These came thick and fast, but the best one 
was from Christy Mason. “ Those papers 
that Betty found are very likely to be what 
they want to decide the ownership of some 
big estate or valuable lands. Old wills and 
deeds are often very important. But why 
don^t they ask for them, instead of trying to 
steal them?” 

Madeline stared. That rubbish I Why I 
think I Well, it doesn't matter, be- 

cause the waste-basket is as safe as any other 
place while I'm away. When I packed to 
come up here I think I tossed them into it, 
but I'm perfectly sure I didn't empty the 
basket. I never do till it overflows. I'll rush 
off on the six ten to-morrow — no, this morn- 
ing, and I'll telegraph you, Betty ; Dick will 


354 BEirr WALES & CO. 

know, or father's lawyer, if the papers are the 
prize package. Good-bye, all you dear old 
19— 's.” 

So 19 — collective farewells were said 
amid wild excitement, and half the class 
waited over to be at the Tally-ho next morn- 
ing when Madeline's telegram was delivered : 
** Papers safe in waste-basket. Two thousand 
dollars reward." 

This was thrilling, but tantalizingly in- 
complete ; 19 — departed gaily with its half- 
loaf, having made Betty promise to indite a 
round robin to the class explaining the whole 
affair. 

** For it's very much our affair," Christy 
declared. *^And don't you write until you 
can explain every single thing, Betty." 

It was only a day later, as it happened, 
when Betty had the whole story. It seemed 
that the deed signed by ** Peter " and wit- 
nessed by Robert Wales was wanted, exactly as 
Christy had guessed, to determine the owner- 
ship of a property worth many millions ; 
and the lawyers of the rightful heirs had 
offered a large reward for its recovery. 
Meanwhile a daring adventurer, who was 


BETTT WALES & CO. 355 

trying to assert his claims to the estate, had 
hired a disreputable detective agency to find 
and destroy the deed. Their clever work 
had traced it to its strange hiding-place, and 
they had made three desperate attempts to 
get hold of the paper. The fact that Mr. 
Wales was a relative of the rightful heirs — 
Robert and “ Peter were cousins — had made 
them suspect that his daughter would know 
of the search for the paper and refuse to give 
it up ; but they had never guessed that the 
girls would have discovered and emptied the 
two inner drawers, of the existence of which 
nobody else knew but their client. “ Mr. 
Smith did not represent any Boston antique 
shop, and his knowledge of old furniture was 
confined to an exhaustive special course in 
the arrangement of sliding panels and secret 
springs. But though this had failed him he 
was a resourceful sleuth, as is proven by the 
fact that just an hour after Madeline had 
taken the papers to Dick Blake he appeared 
at her studio apartment in the guise of the 
building^s window cleaner; and it was due 
only to Madeline's prompt recognition of his 
resemblance to the lady in black of the night 


356 BETir WALES & CO, 

before, that in less than an hour more he 
had been arrested, charged with despoiling 
the Tally-ho desk and also with entering 
Betty^s room in the little white house with 
intent to take the papers if he could find 
them there. For Betty had gone home to 
discover her possessions in great confusion, 
and Dorothy had told of waking up to find 
somebody in their room who said she was the 
washerwoman waiting for Betty to come and 
give her the clothes. 

And when I said ‘ you^re not our wash- 
woman ^cause she’s Mrs. Gibbs,’ she said she 
was Mrs. Gibbs’ sister, and Mrs. Gibbs was 
sick. And then I guess I was asleep again,” 
Dorothy ended comprehensively. 

From Betty’s rooms Mr. Smith had returned 
empty-handed to the Tally-ho, where he had 
previously succeeded in opening two drawers ; 
and this time he completed his search in the 
most conclusive fashion that occurred to him 
by laying open the whole interior of the desk. 

It was a detective story ready-made, Made- 
line declared, and promptly wrote it up, only 
to have one editor tell her that it lacked reality 
and the next assure her it was commonplace. 


BETTT WALES & CO. 357 

“ You certainly never can tell how things 
will take/^ complained Madeline sadly. 
‘‘ That’s what Mr. Morton says. He’s as 
nearly cross with you as he can be with his 
dear Miss B. A., because * those fool splashers ’ 
that he got some shop to order a few of are 
catching on so splendidly. It’s certainly for- 
tunate that Bob Enderby thought of the patent, 
for it seems there’s a small fortune in plosh- 
kins.” 

** Betty Wales and Co.” had certainly en- 
joyed a successful year. Will’s salary had 
been raised three times, and Nan had made a 
fine record and been asked to take a party of 
girls abroad for the summer. But between 
tea-shop, ploshkins, and hidden treasure,” 
Betty was what Will called “ most disgustingly 
wealthy.” It was great fun to be able to rush 
down town in Cleveland and buy the Japanese 
screens and the hammock that mother wanted 
for the piazza of the little cottage they had 
taken for the summer in a lake-side suburb. 
It was better still to be accepted joyously as 
the family cook. Now that she had plenty of 
money in the bank for summer clothes and 
other expenses, and a steady income from 


358 BETTT WALES & CO. 

ploshkins, it was not necessary to waste time 
counting up how much her cooking saved the 
family. The only disappointment came when 
father absolutely refused to take her ** ready 
money/* after what he had said in the fall 
about how every little would help. 

I can*t do that/* he told her, ** and I don*t 
need to now. We*ve pulled through the worst 
of our business trouble, though we shan*t be 
back on Easy Street for a good while yet, I*m 
afraid.** And he sighed a little. 

But Betty only laughed. Who wants so 
particularly to be back on Easy Street ? ** she 
demanded. It*s fun to see what you can do 
when you try. I like being part of Betty 
Wales and Co. I like being the cook. I shall 
like helping in any other ways that turn up.** 
Betty smiled a little far-away smile. “ Lots 
of queer things have turned up this year. I 
certainly do wonder what I shall get into next.** 


LEJL ’10 






'■ * 




'■v^irr 

V .^ . • ' •. y> \ 

. . \ ■ 




.1 f: 




y*. V‘ ' : 

.'*/■- 




r 



-K - 


\ • V 


*‘^ - . i 


' ‘ V?, 

.V 


A 


r 

'r. '.*'7 


♦ • 


V.«J 


I • 


'.yi. 





■ T-^rs 


» ^ 


< .r .» 


• t 


•\v 


a 


y\ 



' ■ •* ' > 

1 ^ • ft « ^ . 


• > 


• I 

* 


V -‘I 
"^1 

- ''>v V> . ' • 


'A,'- A iu.- . >f‘' •' 



» . . • , 

; • •‘' •.?/ :• 

» ' • f_! ' '• V » *'-» ' 

' “ ■ -- ; >, 

•* ' ''•I • .,'^- ’ • ^ ' f' 

• .- 'v' / / . 

, ; / .« ,»i * « 


*! V 


* / .11 , >-• M *t ^ ‘ 

. . .>*' ^ ' •^;- 

/' ■■ 'i 


Afc *• 

<iV! . ’ < “'.v 

‘•tV ‘ *' -ti V, 

■ 

' * ’A A . 



- ',-«-.»*-V.A. ■, #, 

.1 - , , 1 . 


.• 


I 


_ 0 


' ^ ' '• it 

I' 




•J « 1 




r” V 


, ^ 






^'^y ^r> 




mz ■■ m::-::’mf^^Z'i^-,. . ■:'® 

::^.^ ^": • ■ ■ ■ .1^. 

^•kJ .■'■'.,'-,V'',-- • •■ .'^' ; ■ < •< ) \<r 

- ® ’ . 4 • •' r *' i*-' 




V 

% •. • ^ >J ^ 

. . • 9 -^ 9 

•. •' .^' ‘ ' 


? C • ' ■* 


, • 




I p . 


V 


«> 


• • • 




•1^-^vr- Ti 





< *. 


* — 





y »«• . 


«T<Vi 


• ,.vw::^--.|-^" 

: . ^ a - •n 


/.J»,u 




* 

cr^* • '■ '' i'" 

'ii*- « ^ >' 


t- 


r . 



S * V 




3ii 




\-r- 


U.vlV-^1 


rtfv 


•> ♦ 










^.t» 


= 3Lv' 




Vi»>' 4> 




.M*'. 


>*■«. M >’ 


'*r« 




^.i e-v 

- » I ^1 ^ . iT X ♦■ I* » ► r • " \ 

'.vV . • ■V- *'#’ ■ • • • -iS ' • ’ ■•■i' 

•. -'i •' 4 , . •. ,- . ' * • • 

-. ‘V‘ . * ■'r . ( * '■• • ■• -ll' 

' • , - < V, 

*. *. ^ *. rV. >,^. 


0« ,.^‘V' 

■J; ' -I 

*• *: ^ • i. 1. 




*-:<!•■ ‘ •’ >«;:»* '.-n 

'• > '■-•■ 

• T't 


'-2' 


» • * 


* • 


'V^ .’ ! 


in- 


:-*• ''v V 






»• v ' 






. » . - 'C IS 

»i^' 




- 1 






if?. 


A- « 


> . 


V ( 


r ,‘J^^ 

.A’^4-'-| 


;v \ 






« 'i 


4« 


V 


A] 




^ » 


■ 4' 






I 


Y » '^^■' 


' A - # 


V. »* 


9*^ 


Ir4* 


“,j»^^.' '-•.#• ,V, ,/ 

^ 'C ■■:> y‘’“-^-yi^ '■ 


^-T-; 


• ' - * . • 


» t 




• ^ •. 


/V4 






i.V 


. ^^**. •; 
♦ j ^ • Tr ^ 

,r4 , I r* 


?5 


;> >, 




■It"'. 


V 


fS*7‘> 


A' 


'-Ttr 


)l' 




• • W3.'?/3V:' ■*. ' 

... '-a.-VA:,' 

■ y. •■ ' Ai *v:,' 


« f 


A ;>* 


fs 


,r 1 

•t^-U : ■ ■ ■ 






• »1 




•<. 






L > 


r<v. 


4 . 


w*- 


I A ‘ 


L . if* 

W -A / 


» f 




0 "» 


■XTT 


»■' > 














' . > . V ' 


li 


J -! ■' 




♦ ^ > 









'W: 








f < 


tf\f - *• ' * i>V‘' • •* • 

wry^-\ ' ■ ^ ' ■‘'''' ■ 




» O 


^ T 


K(t 


* 


'/% 


ww>^ 


■ ' T 

.. y 


•>) 


'Cu 


it 


A r 


t. 


M ^ 


ZlK 


« J 


4 • 


^ * ♦ - 

* 1 ' — » . 4 


i! 




«» - 


• 




■'■ v^. - 


• • 


-•to 






, V I 




^ -v • ♦ 

^ A ••• ^ 


• *• • . •- Vto-'L' ■ 

•* 


* ‘V: 


-• f 


. ‘4 


'.r 








\ V 


41 ^ 


to ♦ 






'> .1 


m 


r 




. . r 






» \ii:v 


IT-t 




L% ' . •'! •• • 




. ’1^ i , ^ 


•- • 


-AX' <’ 


I 

• f 


















4V V’'''^r 


i / 


i ^ li. 






lA 


«* v 

<■ . 


• • '.. <»'?' 


- v- 








m 


* 


CJ 


.li- 


-A 


>• ■ 


.» ; ‘■- 


>>•-1 


y":^ t!i.>.. 

W •\,; J* f 




1 J 


. p 




iv< 




•-Tj'JpW 


•* '• f? 


« ■,/»*'*' 


. < 




■ •■• » 




^X,'- 


J 


1^*' 




)•: 


>■ .•.- ■. 
■!<» 


\-yJi 


s?. 


n *rf‘ 




W' 






»4< 












Vi 


■'.t. 








